Sorrows
by Amy47101
Summary: No one really knows how or when it happened. All that was known was that there was war. Humans verses pokémon, man verses beast. Arceus had to punish those he created. Neither understood each other, so Arceus cast upon us his Judgement. Now we, pokémon and humans, are one. We are now named after an existence as sad as life itself. We are sorrows. SUBMISSIONS CLOSED, MAY REOPEN.
1. Chapter 1

_No one really knows how it began or when it happened. All that was known was that there was war. Humans verses pokémon, man verses beast. One time pokémon fought along side humans, and suddenly... they turned feral. Arceus had to punish those he created. Neither understood each other, so with his almighty power, Arceus cast upon us all Judgement. Now we, pokémon and humans, are one. Not even the castor of the Judgement could escape his punishment. We are hybrids, mutants, no longer two separate species. _

_It is believed that there was a time before the pokémon gods, also known as B.G., when the world was barren of humans and pokémon. It is then believed there was a time after Arceus created the world, A.A., when humans and pokémon coincided peacefully together. Then there is the time before the Judgement, B.J. War town and desolate, two opposing sides set out to decimate the other. Then there is the time after the Judgement, A.J. The time of A.J. ... The time of our punishment..._

_This time... this place... this world and country... This _**_is _**_the time After Judgement. Our eternal punishment of being neither human nor pokémon. We are neither a world with black and white, no, we are now a world of mixed gray._

_We are now named after an existence as sad as life itself. Our name is constantly reminded of what our sin was, and the Judgement cast upon us so long ago._

_We are Sorrows._

o.0.o.0.o

_The strange thing about drowning, I realized, is that the first thought you have when you're drowning is not "Oh God, I'm drowning." No... Rather, it's something along the lines of feeling the cool wetness of the water on the skin. You think about how strange it is to be floating, how your hair drifts up past your face, how water is touching every bit of your body. How you always had childish dreams of being Ariel or Aquaman, depending on the gender, breathing underwater and living with the ocean. You think about how you wish someone was near you, and how everything is peaceful, and how you wanted to share that with them. _

_Then your lungs begin to burn, and your eyes snap open, though you can't really see clearly because the water is fogging your vision. You begin scrambling and panicking, trying to keep your mouth closed and not suck through your nose. Your limbs flail, and yet, you don't think "Oh God, I'm drowning." _

_This time, you aren't even thinking. It's fight or flight, but there's no end in sight. You know it, your common sense is trying to break through to you, but you're fighting for your life. You're panicking! "I can't breath! I need to fight! I have to survive!" Peace and family and happiness are gone. After all this is done, after you open your mouth out of desperation, and you inhale water. Lungs are burning painfully, even more so than before, black spotting your vision._

_In a last desperate attempt of escape, you reach out, but you're sinking, further and further into the debts of dark water. Even then, you don't think about you're drowning._

_"Oh God... I'm alone... I'm dying here... alone..."_

_You think about your family, your friends, the people will leave you behind. You ponder if they'll miss you, or even find your body once you hit the floor of whatever lake you're in. You close your eyes. Hope is lost. You know you're going to die here._

_Then and only then, in your last few minutes of consciousness, do you finally realize it._

_"Oh God... I'm drowning..."_

o.0.o.0.o

_Chapter One_

o.0.o.0.o

The river ran peacefully off to the side, calming him as he laid his head back with his arms crossed under it, in the grass. Sighing in content, Slade was considering kicking off his boots and relaxing a bit, but shook his head. He knew that he needed to be getting back to the guild, heaven knows what that Raichu is doing.

He furrowed my brow, opening his eyes and staring at the sky. Why does it seem like himself and Setsuko run the guild more efficiently than their own guildmaster? One would think with, as powerful as the Raichu is, he'd be able to run a guild better. But then again, Slade guessed the break up of his team hit him pretty hard.

"Stop making excuses for him, Slade." he muttered to himself. Here he was, seventeen, and one of the youngest sorrows to be able to handle A-class jobs on his own. Ari was only about a decade older than he, already gaining the title of the youngest guildmaster, and he hardly acted it.

Feeling slightly irritated at the thought of the Raichu, Slade stood up, pushing back his white jacket and reaching for one of the navy bands around his right thigh and grabbing his guild badge. He pressed the button in the middle, contacting the guild. From the center, a little holographic projection popped up, showing a young woman around twenty-five.

She had short, straight blue hair that reached her shoulders, curled ears coming fro the top of her head. A transparent white veil was pinned at the back of her head while a crystal emblem was implanted in the middle of her forehead, right where her hair meets. She was donned in a pale yellow dress with blue accents on the side, an elaborate cape hooked off to the right, three slits along the left shoulder, accented with navy beads and giving it an almost toga-like appearance. On her hip was the only super elaborate piece on her outfit, a golden belt accented with teal beads, a golden heart with gold points and decorated with aqua gemstones.

"Ruta." he stated with stern look.

"_Well, if it isn't Slade the Absol, the Lone Ranger." _Ruta smiled. "_What do I owe the honor?"_

"I need a path back the the guild." he said. "Can you please send someone other than Graves? I swear, if I have to hear one more word about how freaking wonderful he is, I'm going to strangle him."

"_Someone? You must be desperate then. The only other path traveler we have is Xaphania. You know how she is." _the Lapras smiled fondly. A while back, Slade knew that Ruta and Xanphania were on the same team as four other sorrows, calling themselves Team HeartSoul. They weren't extremely talented, but they were in no way weak, either. But with the sudden and unexpected death of one of their teammates, an Espeon named Sophanax, they split ways.

One of their other male members, a Donphan named Zalif, decided to actually settle down and marry Ruta. Both settled down happily, Ruta becoming the secretary of the Three Spirit Guild and Zalif becoming a handyman of sorts around town, fixing up small things like patching holes in roofs and fixing leaky sinks. Pan, a Meganium and their leader, continued to do missions with Xaphania.

Xaphania, as a Gengar, began to study the Paths, a series of roadways that were opposite of the current dimension, making easy means to travel, though hard to access for three reasons. One being that only ghost types, whether full or partial, could access the paths. Two is that someone had to guide the caller, and only a few knew the paths well enough to be a Pathmaster. Three was that Dark Guilds, recently, have been taking an interest in Pathmasters, and have been recruiting them like mad, turning them against the Light Guilds.

At three spirit, there were two Pathmasters, Graves Hallowell, a Dusknoir sorrow, and Xaphania Dusk. Xaphania was always more available than Graves, though, since Graves was already on a team and often went on missions while Xaphania stayed local with Pan.

"I'd much rather deal with psychotic little girls than narcissistic asses."

"_Don't let her hear you say that. You know Xaphania hates getting called out on her shortness." _she sighed. "_Honestly, Slade, how much special treatment do you expect? The Paths are only for emergencies, you know that! Go back to Manson."_

"She looks like she's fourteen instead of twenty one." Slade said, ignoring her sentence about his special treatment. Rena narrowed her eyes. Slade rolled his eyes. "Fine, I yield, I yield! I'll go back to Manson and take a guild teleport..." he trailed off as he glanced up, widening his eyes slightly.

"_Good. You need to learn to respect your seniors, Slade!" _Rena laughed. _"I'll make sure your payment for that last bandit arrest is ready for when you get back!"_

"Actually," Slade muttered as he took a step forward. "I might need that payment to wait for a moment. I'll call you back."

"_Slade? What's going on?"_

"I think I found something." he stated, hanging up the call, and rushing over to the edge of the river. Furrowing his brow, he glanced at the water, then inhaled sharply.

Why on earth... Why was there a girl here?

She was perhaps sixteen, and lacked legs. No, she had a mermaid tail, a light blue, with yellow fins that branched out from where he guessed her thighs would be, the skin on the fins and at the end of her tail so thin and delicate looking, he feared that it would rip apart if he so much as brushed it. She had marine-blue hair a tad darker than her tail. Her hair reached her mid-back, with bangs that hung somewhat evenly across her forehead. Four yellow fins came out from the side of her head, the higher two larger than the bottom two, while hair that hung by her face covered where, exactly, they came out. The same type of yellow fins came from the side of her upper arms, barely visible from under the shirt she was wearing. A translucent white veil stretched across her head behind her bangs, almost like a tiara. Around her form was an oversized black T-shirt that was ragged and soaked. He couldn't even call it a T-shirt, more like a rag that hung around her chest and hips.

He watched in amazement as the tail went from a singular appendage to two in a flash of light, suddenly becoming a pair of pale legs instead of an aquamarine tail, the fins still visible on her thighs, hardly covered by the shirt she wore. Judging from he appearance, he was guessing she was a water type, maybe a Vaporeon sorrow? It didn't matter, help her first, questions later.

"Hey." he exclaimed, kneeling down to shake her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

She groaned a bit, eyes squeezing shut before she slowly opened them.

o.0.o.0.o

She blinked up at the person standing over her, furrowing her brow in confusion.

There was a young man around seventeen, kneeling next to her. He had layered white hair that fell past his chin, nearly reaching his shoulders. A majority of the right side of his face was covered by his hair, and single blue streak slashed through his hair, hanging almost directly in the middle of his forehead. He had a strange appendage coming out of the left side of his head, and she barely saw a navy tail behind his jacket.

It wasn't just his strange looks that caught her off guard, but also his strange attire. He had on a sleeveless jacket with a white fur collar that nearly engulfed his entire neck, hanging down and brushing the ground accented with navy stripes going along the hems. He had on a long sleeved, navy blue shirt under that, tucked into white pants with a belt, two navy bands around his right thigh that seemed to be holding important items. Navy boots came up to his knees, and he had navy gloves over his hands.

"Are you okay?" he asked. His one visible, narrow red eye expressed concern, yet hid a deep curiosity. "Do you know where you are?"

She shook her head.

"You're in a small field, nicknamed The Secret Cove, at least, to me. It's a little bit outside of the settlement of Mason. It's a peaceful town, very in tune with what's going on around them... sound familiar?" she shook her head. He chuckled slightly, a light smile on his face. She furrowed her brow. Had she done something funny? And who was this person? Something flitted through her mind, a flash of realization.

"S-Suriedo?" she asked, brows furrowed in confusion. He paused at this.

"Are you referring to me?" he asked.

"Your name is Suriedo, right?"

"No, wrong person." he responded. "My name is Slade. Slade Indigo. May I ask your name?"

"My... name...?" she asked as she tried sitting up.

"Easy now. I don't know if anything's broken or not." Slade said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and helping her sit. She glanced at her attire and blushed crimson. Why wasn't she dressed more properly than a ratty T-shirt and some undergarments?! And... and in front of a boy no less!

"Erm..." she muttered, feeling extremely embarrassed. "Can I borrow your jacket until I get some actual clothes?"

"Of course!" he shed the jacket and passed it to her. She quickly tugged it on, pulling it over her chest. Finding a blue tie that hung loose at her waist, she tied it tightly in front of her holding it somewhat in place. "So how about that name, Miss?"

"My name..." she muttered, glancing down. "What's my name?" A simple question, surely. She had to have known what her own name was! Who she was, at least? Something...?

Nothing. Outside of that flash when she first saw Slade, obviously not the Suriedo she though he was, it felt as if her mind was a blank slate. How had she arrived here? What was her name? Where was she?

...

_Who was she?_

She raised her hand to her mouth and covered it, to afraid that her turning stomach would let whatever was in it, which felt like nearly nothing, spew out in a fit of panic. She didn't remember anything before being shaken awake by Slade.

"I don't know my name." she muttered behind her hand. Slade raised an eyebrow, hardly hearing the words. "I-I-" she choked on a sob as the full reality of what happened hit her. She lowered her hand and shut her eyes. going through her brain again. She remembered Sureido, right? She had to know something else! "I don't remember anything!"

"Hey, listen!" Slade exclaimed as she began panicking. He gripped her shoulders, offering a kind smile. "Listen, just a moment, okay? I can't understand what could be wrong, or how it feels, but you don't have a reason to panic. I can help you, all right? And you remember me, or at least someone who looks like me."

"I don't have a name."

"Then we can give you one. This place is called the Secret Cove, right? Can we call you Cove, until you remember your real name?"

"We?"

"My guildmates." Slade smiled. "I know a really kind water type who will help you."

"Type?"

Slade looked at her in surprise.

"You really don't know much, do you?" he stood, holding out his hand to her. "Can you stand?"

"I think so." she muttered, taking his hand and standing on shaky legs.

"Alright... Easy now..." Slade muttered as he wrapped her arm over her shoulders to help her stand. She slumped into him, accepting his strength. "You're probably tired from dehydration and maybe starvation... We'll get you a good meal once Ruta gets you some proper clothing." he pulled out a badge-like object and pressed a button in the middle. "Ruta, I've got a sorrow here. Dehydration, possible starvation and exhaustion. I don't think she can walk back to Mason. Turns out I'll need Xaphania's path anyways."

"_Alright." _Ruta said, a serious look on her face as she glanced at Cove. "_Where to?"_

"Your place? She needs somewhere to stay and some clothes for her. Maybe some of your old stuff will fit her for the time being..."

"_Of course! I'm glad to help! Draw an opening and Xaphania will be on her way!"_

Slade hung up, kneeling down and drawing some sort of strange circle on the ground. Cove eyed it curiously through blurry eyes and a pounding headache.

"It's all right." Slade muttered, standing then taking a step back. She watched as the circle glowed for a moment. "Help is on the way."

o.0.o.0.o

**Well, here's the rewrite! I hope you enjoyed, a bit different from the original chapter... ^.^**

**Amy47101 signing off! ^.^**


	2. Chapter 2

o.0.o.0.o

_Chapter Two_

"Good morning." Ruta smiled. "Do you remember anything?"

Cove promptly shook her head, sighing.

"Don't ya worry. You'll remember it eventually." Cove smiled at Ruta's husband, Zalif, a tan skinned man short, dark brown hair. Per usual, he wore a gray tunic with loose gray pants and dark boots.

It had been a week since Slade had found her outside of Manson and what happened after was a blur. Xaphania, a Gengar who brought them through the paths, was nothing but a blur of a small purple figure with and sarcasm. Cove drifted in and out of consciousness, remembering eventually not even walking anymore. The next morning, she woke up in a bed with Ruta and Zalif standing over her.

More or less, she freaked.

After screaming, crying, begging for an explanation, and thoroughly drenching Zalif and the room- which she still can't figure out how she managed that- the couple managed to calm her down and explain how they were friends of Slade and she was the 'Ruta' who would have some spare clothes for her. Though still skeptical, Cove listened as they explained basic information of living as a sorrow.

Some time ago, there was a war between two species, pokémon and humans. After the war had turned the world into a wasteland, Arceus, the almighty god of the people and leader of the legends, punished them out of shame and disappointment. The punishment was combining the two species, humans and pokémon. No one escaped the punishment, not even Arceus himself.

Plunged into a world of confusion of how to handle their new existence, the legends dubbed this new species of mutants as 'Sorrows'. Sorrows were mutants with a human body and ears, tails, and powers of pokémon. Slowly, they worked at rebuilding the land, and eventually, the lush green forests and bright oceans returned. Their technology advanced, though they chose to live simple lives in cottages and such.

Across the land, two forces of law formed. The Peaceholders, which are similar to the police of the past, could put out arrests and prosecute criminals, and guilds. Guilds are a bit more complicated. They were made up of Sorrows who completed missions for the common folk for money. Some just simple things, like tracking down lost items. Those day to day requests made minimal money. Then there were more complicated missions: capturing a burglar, busting art smugglers, search and rescues and so on. Those paid more.

Guilds began popping up across the countries. In their current country, Uhssi, they had eight guilds, one to the north, the south, the east, the west, the north west, the south west, the north east, and the south east. They were essentially the big territories in Uhssi, with major guilds being their 'landmark'. Three Spirit Guild, the name a hats off to the Tao Trio, Reshiram, Zekrom, and Kyurem, ruled over missions in the south east. Each guild had one leader, called the guildmaster. The guildmasters of Uhssi makes up the Uhssi Council. In the middle of it all was Central. Essentially, Central was the area where guild leaders of Uhssi met up to discuss the progress their guilds made.

Cove supposed she understood it, though found it horribly confusing at the same time. While everyone said the Vaporeon fins on her head, biceps, thighs, and tail were normal, she felt them strangely out of place, like they were never there before. But they had to have been there if she has them, right?

For about two weeks, she stayed with Ruta and Zilaf, recovering and learning. They showed her maps of not only Uhssi, but other countries, asking if anything sounded familiar. She shook her head each time, though she did ask one thing.

She asked if Ruta was a secretary and Zilaf a construction worker.

Zilaf let out a loud laugh.

"What are you, part psychic type?" he asked, clapping her on the shoulder. "Yeah, I dabble in construction. A jack of all trades, really. Ruta here is a secretary at Three Spirit."

"How did you know that?" Ruta asked, tilting her head curiously. Cove shook her head.

"I don't know. Maybe you subconsciously remind me of a secretary and a construction worker." Cove smiled softly at that, hoping it was true. She honestly didn't know how she came up with those two occupations, they just popped in her mind, like Suriedo had when she met Slade.

"So today," Ruta said as Cove munched silently on her toast. "I'm going to take you to the guild, and we're going to get you signed in. Then you can make some friends and some money. Does that sound nice, Cove?"

Honestly? It sounded terrifying. Being thrown into a world were she had no idea what was going on, nor how to survive outside of a few simple moves that Ruta tutored her in. But it seemed as if, the more she talked to people in this world, the more small fragments of memories seemed to pop up. So if going and joining a guild is what she had to do...

"I-I'll try." she mumbled, fiddling with the aquamarine beads around her wrist. They had been there since she woke up, completely unharmed and unscathed from the river water. Zalif gave her a good pat on the back, nearly knocking her out of her chair.

"That's the spirit, Cove!" he grinned. Cove smiled weakly, trying to keep up with his upbeat attitude.

"Come on now, Cove," Ruta said, smiling at her husband. "We've got you a nice new outfit and everything. You can't wear my hand me downs forever." She guided her back to her room. "I'll get myself ready."

Cove nodded in response, and saw an outfit hanging from her closet. She blushed at the bikini top, a yellow thing that cinched in the center, beads creating a collar around her neck and three strings falling from the center, creating a beautiful decoration. She trailed down to the skirt, a blue thing that was bright turquoise with an uneven hem, the front shorter and the back longer. It was loose and pretty.

On her dresser was three accessories. Two beaded anklets and a beaded headband. Slipping on the outfit, she put on the anklets, one for each ankle, then carefully combed through her hair, tying off the hair framing her face with blue rubber bands. She then placed the headband around her head, in front of her fins. She turned, looking back at the shoes, eyeing them with distaste. Picking up the plain sandals, she put them in the closet and shut the door. Out of sight, out of mind.

She stretched her arms, smiling. The loose skirt ensured that the fins on her legs wouldn't be bent and hurt due to tightness. No sleeves on her arms ensured the same thing with her fins. Her tail peeked over the top hem of her skirt, still moving freely.

"Oh, Cove! You look so pretty!" Ruta said as she walked out the door. Ruta was donned in her usual outfit, smiling at her. Cove looked down, and immediately blushed. This was... this was so revealing! She wouldn't wear this top to a pool, let alone a public place...! "Aw, don't get all self conscious on me now! This sort of style is very popular with girls you age!"

Cove glanced at it, then back up at Ruta.

_It is?_

o.0.o.0.o

Cove shifted slightly as Ruta introduced her to Ari and Setsuko, the former the guildmaster and the latter the assistant.

Ari was a man in his late twenties, sitting with his legs crossed, leaning back in his chair. His golden brown hair was spiked up stylishly, black and yellow ears coming from the sides of his head. His tank top was white in the middle with orange surrounding it. A brown trench coat was over his form, a few tears in some places, the sleeves ending just a little above his wrists. Brown gloves covered his hands, and he wore black pants and combat boots. He had a long black tail with a large, yellow, lightening shaped end. Headphones covered his ears, his eyes were closed, breathing slow and steady. To her, it looked as if the Raichu was hardly listening, but rather his assistant, Sesuko, was taking in the details about her.

Setsuko is a very pretty woman in her mid-twenties. She was elegant, and wore a white kimono with ice blue edging the sleeves and the bottom. A red obi wound around her waist, and she had short, light grayish blue hair that barely went past her shoulders. Two strands, however, framed her face and nearly reached her stomach. The hair faded to purple as it got longer.

The story was that Cove was Ruta's cousin. She hailed from the eastern nation, but with the brigand problems there, her parents sent her to live with her for her own protection. Due to trauma, she preferred not to talk about her past.

Cove was confused as to why they would want to hide her amnesia. What was truly so wrong about it? She's have to ask later.

"Cove," Sesuko called her to attention. She looked up. "Ari has made his decision. You are now a member of the Three Spirit guild." she passed her a badge-like object. It looked like a white circle with a circle in the middle, line passing through it, and a pair of wings. "That's your guild badge. Keep it on you at all times."

"Okay..." Cove trailed off as she took a glance at Ari. He still seemed to be asleep...

"He's always like that." Ruta smiled, standing from the table they were at, come on, we'll get your guild mark tattooed-"

"Tattooed?!" Cove squeaked.

"Mmm-hmm." Ruta said, leading her to her desk and going behind it. She then pulled out a small stamp-like object, smiling.

"A... stamp?" Cove asked, staring at it. Ruta nodded.

"It's permanent ink, so it'll stay. If you're ever kicked out of the guild, we use a similar stamp to remove the ink." she tugged down the collar of her dress, showing a blue mark. It was a mark showing three curved claws intertwining with each other, as if making a triangular knot. One had small wisps of fire, one had electric bolts, and one had icy snowflakes in it. All so small that it was almost impossible to tell unless you were looking closely. "Everyone in a guild has one, and it's easy to tell a real from a fake." she pulled out a huge case, releasing the collar on her dress and adjusting it. "Any color preference?"

"Um... pale yellow." Cove said, watching as Ruta pressed the stamp into the color. "I want it on my shoulder blade," she turned, moving her hair as Ruta pressed the stamp into the skin. Oddly enough, it tickled more than it hurt. It stayed pressed there for a moment, then lifted. "Does it look okay?"

"Adorable, Cove." Ruta sighed. "Now lets see..." she scanned across the guild, then grinned. "Fina! El! Come here!"

Two girls looked up from a pin board, looked at each other, then approached the two water types. One girl had on an outfit composed of oranges and reds. Her pants were fiery red-orange bedlah pants with gold ribbon at the ends around her ankles. Her top was a red-orange bandeau with intricate gold designs on it. Golden beads clinked together from the bottom of the top. A deep red sash and two strings of golden beads wound around her waist, held at her hip with a large golden pin. The ends of the sash fell down to her lower leg. Around her lower arms were unattached sleeves with two golden bangles on each wrist. A gold necklace with rubies embedded with in it hung around her neck.

Her long hair reached to her lower back, was a deep dark red, and seemed to have light bits of orange here and there. Another sash was tied around her head in a headband formation, a golden yellow with deep red throughout it. Two strings of golden beads made an 'x' formation, tying to the sash and clipped into her slightly uneven bangs. Two red Flareon ears came up from behind the sash, and a strange flicker of hair stood up behind the beads, bright orange, looking almost like fire. Her tail, which seemed to be made of fire, flicked back and forth. Her orange guild mark was on her lower stomach.

The second girl had bright electric yellow hair tied into a messy ponytail with a black ribbon. Her hair, also long, reached a little past her shoulder blades when it was up. Her bangs, much like the rest of her hair, were kinda messy. Two Jolteon ears popped up on top her head.

Her outfit consisted of black shorts with a white vest. The area over her chest, however, was black. Both articles of clothing hugged close to her body. A strange collar was around her neck, creating a V-neck, giving her a spiky white collar. A cape fell down her back, but seemed to split in two, the edges with triangular cuts in the end. On her feet was a pair of yellow boots, going up to her thighs with triangular spikes cut into it and a black stripe going up the side. On her hands were fingerless yellow gloves with black wristbands. An actual tattoo wound around her right bicep, two thin bands of black with a jagged design in the middle. Her black guild mark was visible on her left forearm.

They both looked to be seventeen or so, and Cove thought the orange one reminded her of a gypsy, the yellow, a rockstar.

"Cove, this is Fina Everwood," she waved to the girl in red. "And Elysia Briar." she pointed to the girl in yellow. "Girls, this if my cousin, Cove Dewlight. She just joined the guild."

"And you want us to show her around, give her pointers and stuff." Elysia said, raising an eyebrow.

"Actually, I was thinking you should let her join your team." Ruta smiled. "She's a handy asset, really. Decent move set and all, plus, what would you two do if you came across a ground or rock type? Add in Cove, and your weaknesses are countered!" Ruta threw her hands in the air, smiling. "And then Cove can learn the ropes and make some friends. It's a win-win for everyone!"

"I don't see why not." Fina said with a grin. Elysia placed a hand on her hip, eyeing Cove up and down. Cove blushed from the staring.

"Heh." Elysia smirked. "I think a little quiet timidness would fit in amongst the two of us, don't you thing?"

"Yeah, I approve!" Fina held out her hand, shaking Cove's. "As Ruta said, I'm Fina. I'm from the southern territory."

"I'm Elysia," Elysia grimaced at the name. "But you can call me El. Actually, no, you _will _call me El. I'm southeastern born and raised."

"She doesn't like her full name." Fina rolled her eyes. Elysia latched an arm around Cove and began dragging her towards a table and sitting her down.

"We've got some explaining to do!" El said, slamming a fist on the table, causing Cove to flinch. "We," she gestured to the trio. "Are Team Evolution!"

"I'm the leader of the team." Fina grinned.

"T-Team?"

"You're new to guild life, aren't ya?" Fina chuckled. "A team is a group of sorrows in a guild. There's a limit on how many members can be in a team, which is six."

"They say that before the war, trainers could only have pokémon, so that's were the rule originates." El smiled.

"I see..."

"Team members are shown on your badge." Fina said, pulling out hers. "You got one from Setsuko earlier, remember?"

"This, right?" Cove asked, holding up the badge.

"Yeah." Fina placed hers on the table. El mimicked the action. "So here's how you work it. You press this button here," she tapped the middle button. A little holographic image of an envelope showed up. "And if you wanna scroll through the menu, you turn it like so..." she turned the circular part, and the envelope switched through several icons. Cove stared at it in absolute awe. "There's quite a few functions on this handy little thing. You've got your mail here. This is where you can message other guild members, either from your own guild or other certified guilds."

"There's also the map option." El said, turning hers on and flipping to it. "It's very important, but areas unknown to the badge have to be mapped out." El flicked through the hologram with her finger, pulling up a random map. To Cove, it looked half-way complete. "This is a map of the Seaside Caves. Fina and I were searching for an item there as a job, but we had to leave before sundown before we could record the rest of the map."

"Couldn't you get the map from other members of the guild?" Cove asked, glancing at the two.

"Sure you could, if they're willing to sell it." Fina huffed angrily. Cove tilted her head to the side. So guildmembers sell information to each other. "The maps also track fellow guildmembers." Fina tapped a little icon that looked like the guild badge in the bottom corner of the map. From it came nine symbols. Cove furrowed her brow as she saw a blue icon with their guild symbol on it.

"That's the Three Spirit guild. The badge can generally track any member across the country as long as their badge is active. As for other guilds," she selected a pink guild with a mark that looked like a single wing with a small heart over it. Cove noticed that only one popped up on the southeastern territory. "This guild is Amazee, a guild made up completely of women. They reign over the northwestern territory. The badges of each guild can only track members of other guilds within their territory."

"So if we can track our comrades across country, why can't we track other guild members across the country?" Cove furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Because our guild badges are already wirelessly connected." El said. "We aren't connected to other guilds."

Cove nodded in understanding.

"There's also contacts and such. Just add the number from another badge and you can call people." Fina continued. "There's internet and mission slash job log, but those are easy enough." El snapped her fingers.

"Jobs and Missions are different." El pulled up a column on her job log and showed it to Cove.

"_I need some water from the waterfalls in the Seaside Caves, but I'm to weak to go! Could someone gather some for me by June eighth?"_

"This is a job." Fina explained. "They range from simple things like this to search and rescues. Missions are more dangerous. These involve tracking down criminals and defeating them for the Peaceholders. The Peaceholders arrest them and they're tried and convicted, depending on their crime."

"There's certain levels for jobs and missions too." El said, holding her finger erect with one eye closed. "C is the easy ones. They're for the newbs. B is a bit harder, though not by much. A is the hardest job level, and then..."

"The coveted S class." Fina sighed. "Not many get to take those on. They're extremely difficult, and only the best of the best get to take them."

"Most teams are limited to A and under, but if we work hard enough, we could become an S class team." El said, a spark of determination in her eyes. "Anyways, any questions, newbie?"

"What's this one?" Cove asked, turning to an icon that showed the guild icon. Over it was Team/Party's.

"Okay, so then there's one other thing you should know about teams." Fina said without a beat. "Teams or team members can team up with other teams, from any guild. This is temporary, thus why it's called a Party. Once a mission is complete, the party is disbanded and the members go back to their normal teams."

"Okay..." Cove glanced through the apps on her badge again. "Okay, I think I understand."

"Good, now there's one more thing we need to do." Fina smiled. She tapped a few things on her holographic image on her badge. A sudden jingle rang out from Cove's causing her to jump.

"I reacted the same way." El laughed. "I'll make you a new jingle for that thing. The music for this is _horrible_."

Cove nodded, glancing at what popped up.

_"The leader of Team Evolution, Fina Everwood, invited you to join her team! Accept?"_

Below it were two boxes with a yes or a no next to each one. Cove smiled, a warm feeling enveloping her heart as she moved her finger over her choice.

_"Yes."_

o.0.o.0.o

**Amy47101 does not own pokémon or the designs for some characters. All rights go to their respective owners.**

**Listen up reviewers! I am going to accept OCs! Please leave your OCs in a REVIEW. Do not PM me with your OC or OCs. I know those will be lost in the debts of my cluttered PM inbox, and we certainly don't want that. So, here's the guidelines:**

**Name:  
****Age:  
****Sorrow: (essentially which pokémon they are)  
****Eye color:  
****Hair color:  
****Skin tone:  
****Height:  
****Body size/type: (ex: muscular, tall, petite, busty, thin, large...)  
****Clothing: (please be descriptive as possible or give me a link to a picture. If you need inspiration, google gijinka's)  
****Personality:  
****Brief History: (not required, but highly appreciated)**

**Be specific if you want your OC to be in a good or bad guild. There will be evil guilds, which don't follow the rules of Central to a T, but that'll be further explained later in the story. Also, NO SHINY'S OR LEGENDARIES. Shiny's wouldn't do much difference but give a slight clothing design and legendaries are already designed and ready to go. **

**PLEASE FILL OUT THE GUIDELINES TO A T. IF YOU DO NOT YOUR OC WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AND I WILL NOT CHASE YOU DOWN FOR FURTHER DETAILS.**

**Thank you~!**

**Amy47101 sighing off! ^.^ **


	3. Chapter 3

o.0.o.0.o

_Chapter Three_

"Oh, thank you so much!"

Cove smiled at the elderly Dunsparce sorrow as the three of them approached her, each with a bucket of water from the nearby well.

"This stuff works wonders on my berry plants, you'd be so surprised." she continued on, leading them into her backyard. "Shame that Graves fellow and his team couldn't do it this time around. They're such sweet young men."

"Yeah." El said through what looked like a forced smile. "Sweet."

"About as sweet as an aguav berry." Fina murmured, though also forcing a smile. Cove glanced at her two teammates. Who was Graves? Was his team really that bad.

"Anyways, just pour it over these bushes here." she continued as if not hearing their comments at all. She gestured at a patch of bushes with heart-shaped berries on it. "Just a few more weeks, and I'll be bringing your guildmates some pecha cookies!"

"That would be great, Mrs. Berry." El grinned.

"When are you gonna bring more of those tamato blondies around?" Fina asked with a grin.

"Oh dear..." Mrs. Berry murmured. "Last time I brought those to the guild, no one seemed to like them." Fina tossed her red hair over her shoulder with a scoff.

"Those idiots just don't know what good baking is." she commented confidently. She narrowed her eyes slightly, glaring at the pecha bush she was watering. "And next time Coren comments on how I have no taste in good food," she whirled around with her fist raised. "I'll shove the tamato blondies down his damned throat!"

"Ah, you remind me of when I was young." Mrs. Berry smiled. "So passionate and full of energy. Good luck with your boyfriend."

"Coren Ymir is not my boyfriend!" Fina practically shouted. "He's my ex and he is the biggest, stupidest, most rotten man on the face of the earth!"

"Coren?" Cave asked, shooting a glance to El as she rolled her eyes.

"Fina's ex and biggest flirt in the guild. Apparently it was a huge falling out." both cast their eyes to Fina, who was muttering insults about him under her breath. "She doesn't like talking about it."

"Okay." Cove murmured, deciding it best not to further discuss it.

"Excuse me," Cove turned to the voice of Mrs. Berry, smiling slightly.

"Yes?"

"I've never seen your face before. Are you new?"

"I am." Cove smiled. "My name is Cove Dewlight, and I'm from the eastern territory. My parents sent me here to live with my cousin, Ruta."

"Running from something, dear?"

"In my town, there has been a lot of bandit problems as of late. My parents got worried and sent me here. I joined the guild to feel a little less useless."

"Sad times if parents are separating from their children to protect them." Mrs. Berry sighed. "Well, it's good to see a new face." Mrs. Berry grinned. "I know! I'll make _your _favorite desert! Come on, dear, what do you like? I'll whip up a concoction fit for any water type!"

"Well, I do like cake." Cove smiled.

"Marvelous, cake it is!" Mrs. Berry beamed, turning to the house and beginning her walk towards the door. "I'll begin, straightaway!"

"Um," Cove spoke up. "When I said I wanted a cake, I didn't mean it had to be to-"

"Sorry Fina," Mrs. Berry continued on, completely ignoring Cove. "Seems your tamato blondies will have to wait another week."

"A time I'm willing to wait." Fina said, standing up with a somewhat saddened look on her face.

"We'll see you around, Mrs. Berry." El grinned, coming back from the shed with empty hands, the buckets put away. "I look forward to that cake!"

"See you soon, dears!"

Once they were out of earshot, Cove turned to her two teammates.

"Is her name really Mrs. Berry?"

"Nah, it's just a silly nickname." El shrugged.

"Her real name is Cheri Florencio." Fina continued on. "She has a granddaughter named Saffron Florencio."

"She's a Breloom and a fellow guildmate." El said, stretching her arms and intertwining her fingers behind her head. "She's just fifteen and lives with Pan and Xaphania, her teammates. She's not as strong as them, but they're helping her out to grow stronger. She left a while back though with a job requesting a herbal doctors assistant about a month back."

"She stops by at her grandma's from time to time to help with the berry gardens and the bakery." Fina added. Cove looked confused for a moment.

"A Dunsparce and a Breloom...?"

"Trying to figure out genetics?" El said, opening one eye lazily and nudging her with her elbow.

"Yeah..."

"It's kind of simpler now than it was way back when we were separate beings." Fina began explaining.

"Something about egg groups and such." El said. "But thankfully, we don't come from eggs."

"It goes something like this." Fina said. "The daughter takes after the mother and the sons take after the father, pokémon wise, about ninety percent of the time."

"Anything else is fair game." El said. "Saffron is actually a perfect example. Mother was a Breloom, a true-blue green-eyed brunette. But her dad? Blue-eyed blond Persian."

"That's... still a bit confusing." Cove murmured.

"Think of it this way." El said, holding a finger up. "You have daughter, she'll be an eevee. You have a son, he'll be a... whatever the heck your husband is. Get it?"

"I... guess." there was a pause. "So I guess Mrs. Berry sends those requests for water out every week?"

"Yeah. Whoever does it for her, she makes their favorite desert and brings it to the guild for everyone to share." Fina said. "Pretty competitive. Everyone wants their favorite berry desert from her."

"You wanna know how this all started?" El snickered. Cove cocked her head. "Saffron had to go out of town for a mission. Mrs. Berry couldn't bring the water to the well herself. One day, Graves and the rest of his team was walking by, and one of them offered to carry the water for her. Three days later, she hobbled up to our guild with enough Lum berry creme pie to choke a ponyta."

"So now everyone is super competing for the job because they want their share of sweets." Fina smiled. "Looks like this time, though, we're getting cake."

"Who's Graves? What's his team like?" both paused at that, sharing a long look. El spoke first.

"You'll know who they are when you see them."

o.0.o.0.o

The next day began what Cove supposed would be relatively normal.

She woke up, ate breakfast with Ruta and Zalif, ended up wearing an outfit nearly exactly the same as the one she had on the day prior, walked to the guild with Ruta, where she was promptly greeted by Fina and El.

And things just sort of got weirder from there.

She was talking cheerfully with her new team members, them discussing this and that, when El seemed to have spotted something from the entrance. She practically yelled at Cove to go choose a job, any job from the job board as she hauled Fina off somewhere, much to the redheads displeasure.

She had blinked in surprise in the sudden exit, then turned to the job board. Crossing the small area to get to it, she stared thoughtfully at it, eyes glancing between the jobs and the missions. One picture caught her eye. A pretty young woman with blond hair a shade lighter than El's, a flyaway green strand curling up stubbornly at the crest of her messy bangs, hair framing her face. Green and yellow leafeon ears folded against her head as large, brown, almost childlike eyes smiled at the camera.

Cove cocked her head, a warm feeling spreading through her heart. This young woman looked familiar. Was she a friend?

She glanced up at the board her poster was tacked on and her stomach dropped, the warm feeling gone. She was under the missions board.

Her gaze slowly moved back to the poster. In bold letters above her picture was _Wanted. _Under that, was her name. _Viridi Rosewood. _Next to her picture was information.

_Age: seventeen  
__Hair: Blond  
__Eyes: Amber-brown  
__Height: 5"8  
__Sorrow: Leafeon_

And under that, information about her crime and abilities.

_Wanted for the giga drain murders of currently three fire-types. Extremely sly and sneaky, good at archery. Proceed with caution. When captured, please bring her to Akkes Town in the western territory._

"Murders...?" Cove murmured, reaching for the mission.

"Oh, sweet!" a male voice exclaimed, tearing the flier from the mission. "Western territory?"

"Um?"

"Oh, was this yours?" a young man around seventeen with bright blue eyes said, bashfully pushing his bright green hair off his forehead, though it fell back over his head. Cove looked over the rest of his appearance.

The first thing she saw was flygon wings on his back. This was the first time she saw a flying sorrow, so the sight astounded her a bit. He had red goggles and a dark green headband wrapped around his head and over his bangs, the ends knotted in the back, making it look like he somewhat had antennae sticking out of the back of his head. He wore what looked like engineers clothes, green accented with red, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, dark green T-shirt underneath the suit, as well as dark green fingerless gloves and boots. A dark green shawl fringed with red was knotted around his waist, covering the flygon tail he had.

"No." Cove shook her head. "I was just curious. Shouldn't the guild in the western territory take care of those jobs?"

"They should," the flygon sorrow said, glancing at the flier. "But sometimes, when there's an overload of requests and missions, they send them out to other guilds. Since the Warlord Crusaders and the Amazee guild is always feuding on the borders, we often get extra missions from the western and northwestern guilds." he grinned. "Which is great for me."

"That's good." Cove smiled.

"I'm Kai Terran, by the way." he proudly brought his right fist to his chest, giving Cove a view of his guildmark tattooed on his forearm. "They call me the Journeyman. I like taking missions to far away places."

"Cove Dewlight." Cove responded. "I'm new here."

"Cool." he grinned. He glanced back down at the mission in hand. "I've gotta get going. It'll take a while for me to get to western territory, and I need to cover as much ground as possible."

"Good luck." Cove said with a small wave. He responded with a wave, and then hurried out the door, pack already over his shoulder. Cove turned back to the job board, intent on picking a new, less difficult job.

"Excuse me." a young man around nineteen suddenly appeared in front of her out of nowhere. His entire outfit consisted to dark grays and browns, accented with yellow here and there. A gray cloak fell down his back, hood pulled loosely over his head. His dark brown hair reached his shoulders, some, as far as Cove could tell, was loosely tied back while most covered the left of his face. Crimson eyes scanned the job board.

Cove gasped and stumbled back at his sudden appearance- and the fact that he looked something akin to a grim reaper- only to be caught by another person.

"Hey, you must be new around here." the man, about nineteen, said flirtatiously. "I'm Coren." His black hair was spiked up tremendously, and blue luxray ears stuck out from the side of his head. He was wearing a blue t-shirt with a black jacket over it. The sleeves of the jacket were rolled up to his elbows, three yellow bands around each sleeve. His pants were black to the knee and then turned blue. The boots on his feet were also blue, and a black scarf wound around his neck. One fingerless glove covered his right hand, and a sleek black tail with a four pronged star on the end flicked back and forth.

"Oh, a newbie~!" Another male exclaimed. This one had pink, shoulder length hair and aquamarine eyes. A swirl of hair came atop his head, and pink wigglytuff ears stuck up from the sides of his head. He had on a pink t shirt, a white vest over the shirt, with light pink pants, a white swirling design going down the sides. Pink boots were on his feet, and a light tan jacket was worn loosely across his frame. A red design went across the bottom of the jacket. "Hi! I'm Asher!"

"Um..." Cove was unsure what to say at the sudden bombardment of crazed young men. Coren was still holding her, even though she had steadied herself, and Asher was, at the same time, trying to glomp her in a hug. She looked around and let out a groan as another one came towards them, hands in the pockets of purple jeans, close-cut hair covered with large headphones. He had on a black t-shirt with a purple sweatshirt accented with yellow. Red suspenders hung loosely from the belt loops of his jeans, and purple sneakers covered his feet.

"_Well..._" she thought dully. "_At least he looks normal._"

"HEY, GRAVES!" he yelled to the male at the job board at an earsplitting level. "ANY GOOD JOBS BEEN POSTED?!"

"Oh, Clamor, you made the pretty lady faint." Coren said, now supporting Cove by her arms as the swirls in her eyes spun.

"Miss Vaporeon?" the pink haired guy waved his hand in front of her face.

"What.. what on earth...?" she trailed off, ears still ringing from Clamor's overwhelmingly loud voice.

"Don't worry, love," Coren said, scooping her up with and arm under her knees and around her shoulders. "We'll get some medical help for you."

"Um, thanks, but I'm really fi-"

"Nonsense!" Coren exclaimed. "A true gentleman always helps a damsel in distress."

"But I'm not in distr-"

"No one's ever perfectly well after Clamor's shouts~." Asher hummed. "Loudest loundred in the southeastern territory."

"See now? Coren will get you all patched up." Coren smiled. Cove looked around. Was everyone seriously watching this like it was normal?! No one moved to stop it...

But then again, they were probably to busy paying attention to another fight happening halfway across the guild. Was this place constantly this chaotic?

"_Coren!" _someone yelled. Coren promptly dropped to the ground, narrowly missing a fireball that flew past his head. Cove looked over and saw Fina practically on fire, fuming as she stared at them, hands alight with flickering fire. El had her other hand covering her face, as if having witnessed this before and was was quite tired of it. "I told you not to mess with El, and the same thing applies to Cove!"

"Cove?" Coren wondered, standing up and staring at her again. "So that's your name! It's lovely."

"You didn't even ask her name?!" Fina practically shrieked, the heat intensifying in the room.

"Come now, lovely Cove~." Coren hummed, completely ignoring Fina.

"No! I don't wanna go anywhere!" she exclaimed.

"Coren!" Fina shouted after him.

"Guys, we've got cake!" Asher exclaimed happily

Everyone turned to Mrs. Berry, holding a four tier cake. Casually, she walked across the guild hall, set the cake down on the bar top, turned to them, and smiled.

"If anyone wants a slice, come on over." she said, heading back towards the door. "Otherwise, carry on."

Coren promptly dropped Cove and made a beeline for the desert.

o.0.o.0.o

"The Emblem Brothers?" Cove asked, cocking her head as her fork paused midway to her mouth.

"Yeah." El said, resting her chin in her hand with a sour look on her face. Fina had long since left the guild to go cool off, leaving the two alone. "Fina's not a big fan." she turned, nodding her head towards Asher, who was happily grinning as he ate his cake, like a little kid. "Asher Breeze, Wigglytuff sorrow, age eighteen, acts like a little kid, shows his affection via hugs and gives nicknames to people he really likes." she moved her eyes to Clamor. "Clamor Admin, Loudred sorrow, age eighteen, known for being overwhelmingly loud, throws the biggest and best parties, greatest DJ known to man."

"They don't seem so bad." Cove said.

"They aren't." El commented, pointing her fork at her. "Asher's great with kids and he usually takes care of the younger members. Biggest, purest heart you'll ever see in a man. Clamor's my helps with my music and my backup singer. May be loud enough to shatter glass, but that man can really work a soundboard and really is a good singer." she paused. "Also, he's the best drinking buddy a girl can ask for."

"Then why does Fina hate them?"

"Coren Ymir and Graves Hallowell." El shrugged. "Well, mostly Coren. Luxray sorrow, nineteen years old, big 'ole sweet tooth. As you can probably guess, he's the biggest flirt in the guild, perhaps even in the southeastern territory. A couple months back, he and Fina were a thing, you know? Really into each other." El rested her chin on her hand and sighed. "You could even say they loved each other. Coren stopped being a flirt, Fina kept her temper in check, and everyone honestly thought that they'd be planning a wedding soon."

"A-A wedding? Aren't they a little young?" Cove asked, cocking her head. El shrugged.

"Not really. Laws says that by seventeen, we can legally live on our own as adults. Fina's eighteen, he's nineteen. It's pretty common to make big decisions like that young." she stared at her oddly. "Ruta got married five years ago, when she was seventeen. Didn't you attend the wedding?"

"Um, no." Cove smiled, running excuses through her head. "You know, bandit problems. Dangerous to travel."

"But what about-"

"Please, can we not talk about it?" Cove muttered. El stared at her a moment.

"Regardless, there was a huge falling out. Neither will talk about what happened. Fina just showed up on my doorstep one day with a couple of her things, an absolute crying mess, and asked for a place to stay. The next day, Fina said she sold her apartment she shared with Coren and he dropped off the rest of her things. They wouldn't even look at each other. She's been staying with me ever since."

"Do you think that she really... loved him?"

El sighed.

"I think there was really something special there, something more than the physical attraction to each other. But he really broke her heart. Messed her up something good. He flirts with every girl he can and she attacks him every chance she gets. I'm not sure if it's because she still holds a torch for him and she's jealous or if she's trying to protect other girls or whatever... But that's why I tried to get her out of here, but since they're both in the same guild..." she tilted her head back, blowing her bangs off her forehead.

"I guess it's not a good thing to fall in love with a fellow guild member. Causes strife and chaos." Cove said, turning her straw in her drink. El raised her glass.

"Cheers to that."

They tapped glasses and fell into a silence.

"And Graves?" Cove asked after a while. El laughed.

"Graves Hallowell, age twenty, Dusknoir sorrow. Like I said, extremely arrogant. What's more infuriating is that he has good _reasoning _to be arrogant." she cast a glance at him. "He's strong. Really strong. And he loves rubbing it in everyone's faces. Honestly, everyone really dislikes him, but no one says anything because, like I said, strong." she smirked, returning her gaze to her. "He's just an arrogant prick."

o.0.o.0.o

Kaze blinked his eyes, trying to figure out what the heck happened to him.

Casting a glance around, he saw his black trench coat hanging over a hook. Blinking narrow red eyes, left one covered with an explosion of dark brown-nearly black-hair, the edges of said bangs a natural solid red. The rest of his dark brown hair stuck up, but seemed to have an odd sense of neatness to it. Had someone combed it? His Staraptor wings were stretched out, something he was thankful for, for lack of wing cramps.

Slowly, he sat up, stretching the wings. Arceus, they were still stiff. How long had he been asleep? His black tie and black loafers were missing, though he quickly located them, the former on the nightstand, the latter neatly sitting on the floor. The top few buttons of his white-collared dress shirt was undone, which he promptly did up grabbing the tie and redoing it, as if he had woken up in his own apartment back in Okonak City, capital of the Southeastern territory where his guild was located.

Brushing unseeable dust off his black dress pants, he put his shoes back on, furrowing his brow as he struggled to remember what was going on.

...

Pan had asked him to check up on Saffron, if he remembered correctly. He only accepted because he had another mission he was looking into in the western territory. He was flying towards the address that the job said to go to, but about halfway there, in the forest, he felt tired and then...

Everything was a strange blur after that.

"Kaze!" he turned his attention to the door, and saw a young teen around fifteen with freckles sprinkled across her nose. She had short, sandy blond hair that fell around her chin and an odd looking green marshmellow hat on her head with a red pin on it and the tell tale guild badge close to it. Honestly, Kaze mistook her for a boy until she spoke, an obviously female voice sounding across the room. Cobalt blue eyes had relief look through them.

With a better look at her, Kaze saw that she was wearing a short sleeved, pale yellow hoodie with what looked like bandages wrapped around her chest and torso for a shirt under it. Loose green capris were on her legs, tied tight with a beaded red belt, two little tan pouches handing from it. Like her hands, she wore toeless black socks that also lacked a heel.

He stared at her for a moment, struggling to remember where he had seen her before and how the breloom sorrow knew his name.

"Wait here, I'm going to get my assistant." she grinned, waving as she jogged out the door, breloom tail happily flicking back and forth with relief. A few moments later, she brought another young woman in.

This one was a leafeon sorrow, wearing a pale yellow dress with an uneven hem-the left side longer than the right-a leaf pattern running up the left side. The sleeves were loose around her arms, tightening just below her elbows with brown sleeves. Two brown belts criss-crossed each other at her waist, and a brown corset covered her chest and abdomen. A deep brown cloak fell from her shoulders, held together at her neck by a leaf charm. Long, wavy blond hair fell down her back, braided a bit at the end, bangs falling over amber brown eyes, hair framing her face.

She smiled brightly.

"Hi!" she smiled. "Feeling any better? Hopefully, _my_ assistant," she nudged the Breloom with her elbow. "Didn't bother you to much."

"Not at all." Kaze said, deciding to be courteous. These two young women, after all, took him in. "I don't remember much though. I cam here on a mission, and some of my guildmates, Pan and Xaphania, asked me to check up on their teammate, Saffron Florencio."

"Ha!" the smaller girl said. she turned to the side, pointing to her right shin. There, the Three Spirit guildmark stuck out proudly in red. "I can't believe you didn't recognize me. I mean, come on!" he stared at her stoically. "Saffron? Saffron Florencio?" Another long stare. "You know, granddaughter of Cheri Florencio, aka, Mrs. Berry? The old lady who brings the berry deserts all the time?"

Kaze narrowed his eyes slightly. Saffron facepalmed.

"Well, you're never, ever in the guild, so it's no surprise you have no idea who I am, you antisocial freak." Saffron muttered. "So Pan and Xaphania are worried? Why?"

"There's apparently some criminal draining the lives of other sorrows away via Giga Drain. Someone took the job before they could properly identify who this murderer was, though."

"Hopefully, your guildmate catches them." the blond woman said. "It's really quite heartwarming to see that so many powerful guildmembers are coming to help catch the murderer." Kaze narrowed his gaze on her a moment.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite get your name." he stated. The blond blinked, them smiled brightly. Closing her eyes and slightly cocking her head to the side, she spoke.

"My name is Viridi Rosewood."

o.0.o.0.o

**Amy47101 does not own pokémon or designs to some of the characters. All rights go to their true owners.**

**Sooooo YAY. New chapter, and I introduced quite a few characters. Only one I don't own is Saffron, who belongs justly to the great fennikenfan. And yes. Somehow, poor Saffron became the center of a wonderful genetics lesson. XD**

**Hopefully I got her in character enough. What I'm most nervous about with these OCs is them being out of character. Sooooo if your OC appears in the chapters and I don't get him or her right, please tell me.**

**Also, this will lead into the FIRST ARC of the story. Small arc, yes, but important because it essentially will probably introduce all the characters. XD**

**Speaking of arcs, if anyone has any ideas for future arcs, please submit it in a review and I'll see what my mind will concoct.**

**And if you still want to submit an OC, please refer to the guidelines in the chapter two authors notes.**

**Also, new coverart. Yays~!**

**Amy47101 signing off! ^.^**


	4. Chapter 4

o.0.o.0.o

_Chapter Four_

In the southern territory, there was a relatively decent sized city called Nomiar. Nomair was on the border of the territory and Central. In Nomair was the southern territory's guild, the Specters of the Forgotten.

The Specters of the Forgotten was a guild, true to it's name, was a guild run by a ghost-type sorrow named Coraline. Coraline was a Mismagius sorrow, and a powerful one at that. She was tall, dark, beautiful, and very, very proud of her stature among the guilds. It was a guild in which ghost, dark, and psychic types gather. Due to this being the main typing, everyone believes that they are bordering on becoming a dark guild, but this is hardly true. The Specters of the Forgotten was, if not, still _is _one of the most loyal guilds to Central, their guild symbol, a crescent moon turned on it's side with three spears through it, all pointing to a small crescent moon in the center, either a threat or a sign of grace, depending on who saw it.

Anyways, Coraline was even more proud of her guild of powerful psychic, dark, and ghost types. Call her typist or what have you, but how could she help it if those types flocked to her guild and rose to the top?

So she had to wonder how and why a seventeen-year-old fairy type, of all things, was sitting in her office, nervously twiddling her pink gloved thumbs.

"So..." red eyes glanced over the girls guild info again. "Fayne Neverheart."

"Um, it's Faye Eberhart, Miss Carter." she quietly corrected. Coraline looked over the girl again and saw, simply, an abundance of _pink. _

Hot pink hair in a cute bob cut, sylveon ears of a similar color coming out of her head. She had on a light pink, sleeveless dress. A darker pink corset vest was over the dress, buttoned neatly. Gloves and ankle boots of the same dark pink shade were over her hands and feet, and a nearly translucent, silvery-blue sleeveless jacket fell neatly over her shoulders. The beautiful cloth cascaded down her back, neatly wrapping around the dress, secured with a pink bow at her neck, the ribbons going over her shoulders. To top it off, a similar bow was pinned at the base of her left ear, one end of the ribbon hanging down by her face and the other hanging over her ear. A sylveon tail curled near her thigh, her eyes a pretty, foggy, nearly ethereal pale blue.

Pretty, foggy, nearly ethereal _unseeing_ pale blue eyes.

"I see." she said. "Why do you want to join the guild, Miss Eberhart?"

"For my parensts." she said softly. Caroline glanced at her again. Didn't disabled sorrows get some sort of benefit from Central? The A Little Less Sorrow Benefit or something?Why was a blind fairy type sorrow sitting in her office?

"Do you know anyone in the guild?"

"No." she shook her head. "I'm fairly new to the country of Uhssi, to be honest."

"I'm sorry." Caroline shook her head, standing up. "We're not equipped to allow you into the guild. Under good conscious, unless you have a friend who can help you with your problem, I can't send you on missions."

"I understand." Faye nodded, standing up, and tapping at the desk for the paper. Once holding it, she groped downwards for her bag. Once in her grasp, Coraline watched as she turned, almost tripping over the chair.

"Shall I call someone to escort you to the door?"

"That would be appreciated." she sighed, deciding to take her seat again with her bag in her lap. Coraline hummed something under her breath, summoning a small ball of purplish flames, then allowing it to fly out the door to summon a member. In a few brief moments, a tall, slim drifblim sorrow walked in.

He had pale skin and gray hair cut short, reaching his chin and sticking up in some places. On his head was a little gray-purple top hat pinned at a slight tilt on his head, a tuft of white on the brim. He wore grayish purple vest with black vertical stripes over a lavender dress shirt with yellow cuffs. Around his neck was a black tie with a yellow x pin. The buttons on the vest had strings attached to them, on the strings were yellow X's. He had on long black pants and black shoes and dutifully hanging from his wrist was his signature umbrella, waiting for the time to be used. On the right side of his neck was his guildmark, colored in violet.

"Jaxximus Hollowgale." Caroline nodded her head with a smirk. She was quite proud of Jaxximus. A boy faced with the tragedy of suddenly being separated from his parents, found by some of her members, brought here, and suddenly finding the resolve to become a Pathmaster himself. Not nearly a Pathmaster yet, but sufficient enough to act as a useful means of transportation for an emergency rescue.

Faye turned to look over her shoulder, as if to address the newcomer.

"You called?" he responded simply.

"Lead this girl to the doors. And maybe to an inn or something. She's blind." He flicked his eyes to the girl, then nodded.

"Alright." he approached her, holding out a hand. "Miss?"

"Faye Eberhart." she said with a smile, groping at his hand until she finally managed to grab it. Leading her out into the guildhall, they were both met with the sounds of teasing guildmates, laughing at the two walking hand-in-hand.

"Heya, Jax!" someone shouted. "Wanna introduce your girlfriend?" Jax's face hardly changed from his stoic expression, staying silent as he lead her to the doorway. Once outside, he turned to her.

"As Mistress Caroline said, my name is Jaxximus Hallowgale. Everyone just calls me Jax, though." he glanced at her again. "Did you join the guild?"

"No." Faye sighed. "She rejected me."

"Rejected?"

"It's because I'm blind." she sighed. "I want to join a guild to have a purpose. But I've already been to two others and got rejected."

"Twice?" he asked in surprise. He didn't even think convicted criminals got rejected twice.

"Well..." she trailed off. "Not exactly. The Mermaidian Song Guild let me in, but I quit because I jeopardized the life of the guildmaster. That was mortifyingly embarrassing. And the Warlord Crusader guild..." she trailed off with a shudder. "Well, their greeting is to throw something glass at me. Unintentionally, of course. I think there was some sort of brawl going on." she shook her head. "I kind of walked out after that."

"So what do you plan to do now?" Jax asked out of curiosity.

"Onto the next guild." she said with a sigh. Turning to him, she spoke. "So anyways, can I ask you something?"

"Uh, what?"

"I like hearing about why people joined their guilds." Faye said shyly, as if embarrassed by it. "So why'd you join the Specters of the Forgotten Guild?"

Jax blinked at that, cocking his head as he mulled over his answer.

"I joined partly because a group of members essentially saved my life when I was a child and because it is, essentially, a gathering ground for Pathmasters. I want to be a Pathmaster to find my parents."

"Your parents are missing?" Faye asked with a small frown. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, it's not your fault." he said with a shake of his head.

"It could be worse though, right?"

"How so?"

"They could be dead." she said this as if she knew what she was talking about, so Jax has a feeling she wasn't really making a really bad, really macabre joke to try to lift his spirits. She turned to him. "Don't worry. I'm sure they'll find you soon. Or you'll find them soon. Whichever happens first."

Deciding not to press the matter further, Jax changed the subject.

"Do you want me to navigate a path for you to the nearest guild?"

"Just because I'm blind, doesn't mean I can't handle myself." Faye responded, though the hint of bitterness behind her voice didn't go unnoticed.

"It doesn't matter if you're blind." Jax said with the shake of his head. "Dark guilds are running rampant in the country. I don't think you should be traveling alone."

"Trust me, Jax, I'm aware of the dangers of Dark Guilds." she said softly.

"Jax!" Jax lifted his head to the voice, and rolled his eyes at Kai furiously waving his hand above his head in greeting. "Heya!"

"Hey, Kai." he responded. "On another one of your journey's?" Kai laughed.

"Yep! I've managed to snatch a mission in the western territory." the flygon's gaze turned to Faye. "So who's this?"

"Faye Eberhart." she introduced.

"Are you new to the guild?" Kai asked, leaning down slightly to look her in the eye.

"No. She got rejected." Jax responded. Kai winced.

"Harsh." he glanced at the two. "So are you guys friends or something? 'Cause Jax doesn't make friends easily, you know. He actually has, like, no friends. Well, except for me, because I'm best friend anyone could ever have, but-"

"Be quiet, Kai." Jax sighed. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. "Kai, can I ask you a favor?"

"What?"

"Can you take Faye to Three Spirit? I'm worried about her traveling alone with the Dark Guilds everywhere."

Kai looked unsure for a moment.

"I dunno." he said, scratching the back of his head. "I'm on a pretty urgent mission. There's some chick in the western territory murdering other sorrows. Time is of the essence, you know? I only stopped by to see if I can get a free meal off of yo-" he drew out the word which Jax knew was going to be 'you', but ended up being a your. "Your guild."

Jax sighed. Didn't Kai make a lot of money off these missions? Or does he just blow it all the time like he's known to?

"I can go with you." Faye offered. "I can be helpful, I promise."

"It's dangerous." Kai said, though his grin had a more teasing tone than it did a warning one.

"I can be helpful." Faye insisted. Kai shared a glance with Jax, then laughed.

"Hey, the more the merrier. This'll give you some experience on the field, too." Kai threw an arm around her shoulder. "And after that, I'll get you into Three Spirit."

"Really?" she asked hopefully.

"Really." Kai grinned. He turned back to Jax. "You wanna buy me some dinner? I'm broke."

Jax stared at him for a moment, then sighed.

"Lead the way, Kai." he said, waving his hand dismissively.

"_How curious." _he thought as he watched the two go down the steps. Most of the time, people viewed him as cold and distant, not needing friends or not wanting to be bothered. That was far from the truth, especially the part about not needing friends.

Kai had sort of appeared in the middle of one of his missions, saying he was trying to find the guild. After giving him directions and then finding that he had gotten lost for four hours, he ended up leading him to the guild. It was the oddest thing with Kai. In air, it was like he knew the world like the back of his hand. On the ground, though, he was so directionally challenged it was a miracle he managed to get anywhere. After declaring him a 'great guy' and finding out he was a member of a guild, they somehow ended up exchanging their badge information.

And thus, Kai became the fourth contact on his badge, after work, mom, and dad. They turned out to be pretty good friends, despite Kai's direction difficulties and total irresponsibility with money and Jax's seemingly aloof nature.

Secretly, Jax loathed and envied Kai. He was jealous of the fact that he was essentially everyone's best friend, and could just talk to someone and suddenly have a new friend while he struggled to have a conversation with one other sorrow.

And then there was Faye.

He had no doubt that Coraline purposefully summoned him to help Faye so he would make more friends. Which was entirely pointless, really, since she was literally leaving as soon as he brought her to the door. Maybe it was the fact that he had to lead her to the door by holding her hand. Maybe it was the fact that she couldn't see the cold expression on his face. Maybe she heard the secret desperateness he had for a simple friend.

Who knew? It seemed as if they could relate in some way. Something bad involving dark guilds has affected her life dramatically as well.

Snapping out of his own silent revere, he glanced down the steps and realized that Faye and Kai were gone. He facepalmed. How could he had left that directionless idiot alone, on his own, with a blind girl?

Sighing, he opened his umbrella, holding it above his head and floating a few feet off the ground.

"Time for an arial search, I guess."

o.0.o.0.o

"Feast your eyes," Fina said with a victorious smirk. "On the ticket to moving out of the shitty rental apartment."

Cove looked at the piece of paper that she had slammed down into the table, blinking as Fina moved her hand to reveal the request.

_The Quest for the Rare Herb!_

_Request Issued By: Moon Kiyoko and the Ikesi Elder_

_Location: Ikesi Village_

_Reward: Dream Mist, 15 Moonstones(the gem, not the evolution stone), 10,000 gold coins, information concerning another mission in the western territory._

_A strange illness has taken over the town, and no healing move seems to be helping the victims. Thankfully, we have found a cure for the toxin: the rare Nakoy herb that is found only underwater. The only problem is that no one in Ikesi is a water type and we can't obtain the herb. I'm afraid of loosing the village I grew up in to illness. We are fearing death at this point._

_Please send a strong water-type to save our village!_

Under it was a picture of what Cove assumed was the village. It was a rather small thing, small little houses made of white stone and red shingles, similar stone paths going through the streets. Behind it, a majestic, looking temple. Lanterns were strung up between the buildings, a source of light and decoration, it seems.

Cove looked back up at Fina. She was grinning back at her.

"You want me to get it?" she asked, pointing at herself.

"Yep." she smiled.

"Think about it." El said, waving a finger at her with a grin. "If we get enough money for the house we've been eyeing up, we'd have enough room for you and a couple others. We'd be able to extend our team a bit."

"You'll have to be alone for a while, but I think she can handle diving into a lake for a little while, right?" Fina smiled.

"Are you... are you _sure?" _Cove pressed nervously. "I mean, I don't have much experience on jobs..."

"Hey, it's not like we're sending you down to take on an entire Dark Guild by yourself." El said, nudging her with her elbow. "Just dive down, get the plant, and then we've got a little more money."

"A... Alright." Cove said. Fina grinned.

"Great!" she exclaimed, immediately going into team leader mode. "Alright, so I'll go tell Ruta we're taking this job. El, you've got that route from the search and find mission, right?"

"Yeah." grinned El, seemingly excited to get out of the town. "I'll get it pulled up."

"Good." she grabbed her guild badge, and pulled up a few things. Cove heard her badge ring from her hip. Grabbing it, she saw a message from Fina, and saw a list of sorts. "Those are supplies we'll need. You can go to the market and get them for us, right?"

"U-Um..."

"It's pretty easy to get there." El offered. "Literally just a right from the guild."

Cove wasn't worried about getting lost. She had learned her way around town by now. What she was worried about was going into town, alone.

"Here," Fina passed her the shoulder bag that she aways carried. "This is our adventure bag. We usually carry all of our items in it. There's gold coins in there, as well as some items. If you run low on cash, sell some things, but don't let anyone rip you off. Barter hard and don't get gipped!"

As Fina hurried off to alert her superiors about the job and El began forming a quick route on her badge, Cove stared at the bag confusingly.

"_Barter?"_

o.0.o.0.o

"Five hundred platinum coins." Slade demanded, keeping his gaze steady to the flower shop owner. "Deal?" he asked, holding out his swadloon sorrow looked flustered, eyes continually flicking from the rare flower on his wooden counter and back to Slade.

Sighing, he grasped Slade's hand in a firm handshake.

"You have a deal, Mr. Indigo." he released his hand, shaking his head and turning to his cash supply. Slade made sure to keep a careful eye on the gold he was getting paid. After all, he couldn't trust anyone when it came to money, and shop owners can be fickle creatures.

"Come on, now. For twenty gold, I can give you eight revives with those potions. That's a deal considering I _should _be charging you one thousand tin for all of this together."

"Uh..."

Slade smirked. Looks like someone new just entered the world of bartering. He cast his glance over at the newbee, and saw marine blue hair and vaporeon fins. Cove?

"Here you are." the swadloon said, dropping the bag of coins on the counter. "Five hundred, exact."

"Better be." Slade responded, snatching the bag and shoving it into his travel bag. The swadloon smirked.

"Not going to count it?"

"You're not stupid enough to cheat me out of my money, are you?"

The swadloon was silent.

"Didn't think so."

Slade walked away from the stand, walking over to the medicine stand that was, watching as the owner continued to try to push extremely overpriced items onto her.

"I... I don't know..." Cove murmured, obvious confusion on her face. Slade didn't blame her. These shop owners knew how to confuse people quickly and easily, even if they knew the currency. Cove probably didn't know heads or tails of the currency or the market.

Slade stepped closer, glancing over the items laid out. Potions, as well as some antidotes, paralyze heals, and burn heals. Off to the side was some revives that the owner was trying to sell for her.

"Three hundred coin." he stated clearly, looking up at the shop owner. "Minus the revives."

"Huh?" he looked over at Cove, who was blinking at him curiously, as if trying to recall where she saw him. Then, as if it suddenly snapped into place, she spoke. "Slade!"

"Shit." he heard the shop owner mutter. Slade smirked. Everyone knew that no one could barter prices with him, he was just to careful and good with his money. "You know one another?"

"I introduced her to guild life." Slade said. "So how much were you planning on cheating her out of? She's fairly new to guild life. She's got rent to pay and food to buy. Her teammates trusted her with their funds. You probably saw her as an opportunity to score some more gold in your pocket, right?"

The shopkeeper muttered something under his breath.

"Three hundred for the medicine." Slade demanded..

"Fine. Fine!" the shopkeeper exclaimed, clearly unwilling to going into a bargain fight with him. Slade smirked, pulling out the necessary money as the man bagged up his purchase.

"Pleasure doing business." Slade said, taking the paper bag as he placed the coins in the mans hand. He held it out to Cove, and her gaze flicked to it, then she took it.

"Um, thank you." Cove said as they walked away. "I can pay you back..."

"You have no idea how the currency works here, do you?"

"No." Cove shook her head after moment's hesitation.

"Well, you barely knew about sorrows and typings, so I'm not surprised." Slade said, shaking his head. "I am surprised you came out to attempt it, though."

"Well, Fina just went into some leader-mode. I didn't think I could refuse her, even if I tried."

"Well, that's Fina for you." Slade shook his head. "She's always been a natural born leader like that. Anyways, you need to learn your currency. I'm pretty sure that once the other shop owners realize we're acquainted, they won't try conning you, but still..."

"I can't expect them to explain it all to me." Cove nodded with a sigh. "Did you know that you can legally get married at seventeen here? I didn't know that and nearly blew it with El."

Slade cocked his head slightly, but tried not to act all to surprised at her lack of knowledge. After all, she didn't even know what a sorrow was when he found her.

"Alright, currency 101." Slade said, sitting down on a random bench and gesturing for her to sit down as well. Once she was seated, he pulled out his money pouch and dug around a bit, eventually coming up with six coins. "Okay, so the currency is fairly simple in Uhssi. It's literally called the coin currency. There are six coins; gold, platinum, silver, bronze, copper, and tin. Tin is worth the least. One tin is worth one coin. Gold is worth the most at one hundred coin. Platinum is worth the second most at fifty coin, Silver is worth twenty five coin, bronze is worth ten coin, and copper is worth five coin."

"Okay..." she said, studying the six coins.

"What that shop owner was doing," Slade said, picking up the tin and the gold. "Was trying to con you because he knew you were new to the currency. He told you that the better price was twenty gold over a thousand tin, right?"

"Right."

"Can you tell me why that's wrong?"

"Because..." she trailed off, furrowing her eyebrows. "Because twenty gold is worth two thousand coin?"

"That's right." Slade nodded. "And even if you did pay the thousand tin, you still would've been conned since all of that is worth three hundred coin." he scooped up the coins, placing them carefully back into his pouch. "That's why you've got to be careful about your money. You have to listen carefully to the prices they're offering. Just because you hear the words tin or copper, doesn't mean that it's exactly the cheapest. So keep your ears open."

"I think I get it." Cove nodded.

"Then let's test your knowledge." Slade said with a grin. "What's next on your list?"

o.0.o.0.o

"So how come I don't ever see you at the guild often?" Cove asked Slade as they were heading back to the guild.

"What, did you miss me?" he responded with a smirk.

"Well, no... er... yes... Uh..."

Slade smirked at Cove's floundering. This didn't go unnoticed to Cove, who tried to gather her composure.

"So to say, I was just curious." Cove sighed, tilting her head back. "I meant to thank you for helping me establish a place here. But I never see you, so it's kind of hard to do that with you never being around."

Slade chuckled.

"That's the life of an S-class guildmember." he said. Cove blinked. A moment of silence.

"You're S-class?!" she exclaimed, snapping her head to him and pointing at him. Slade shrugged.

"Yeah."

"B-But...!"

"I'm to young? I'm to weak? There's no way I could possibly be an S-class?"

"No... I was just surprised, that's all." Cove shrugged. "People seem to covet the S-class members, like their gods or something. And yet I'm talking to you right now."

"Hey, I had to work for where I am. I wasn't suddenly granted S-class when I entered the guild. There was a lot of work thrown into it."

"I would guess!" Cove exclaimed.

There was a silence as the conversation fizzled out.

"You know," Slade said after a while. "All I did was bring you to the guild."

"Hm?"

"What I mean-"

"Cove!" she looked over her shoulder and saw Fina and El approaching, El with two travel bags over her shoulder and Fina with one. Upon reaching them, Fina smiled. El had a sly look on her face, but said nothing.

"Did you get what was on the list?" Fina asked. "Hopefully the hustle and bustle wasn't to confusing for you."

"Not at all." Cove responded with a smile, patting the bag handing off her shoulder. "I have everything."

"Good." Fina said as El passed her a bag.

"Ruta got you a bag packed up." she explained with a grin. "Little Cove's first mission out of town!"

"Well, I'll leave you to your mission." Slade cut in, deciding to take his leave. "Safe travels, Cove."

"Thank you." Cove smiled.

Once he was out of earshot, Fina and El turned to her, both with similar, sly, mischievous looks on their faces. Cove, unsettled by their expressions, took a step back.

"What?"

"Since when were you acquainted with the Lone Ranger?" Fina asked with a grin.

"Lone Ranger...?" she asked, blinking. "You mean Slade?"

"She says his name like he's a normal sorrow." El facepalmed.

"That's... not okay?"

"It's fine." Fina said, shooting a look to El. "Slade's just, sort of, well-"

"An Arceus damned legend!" El exclaimed. "He joined the guild five years ago, when he was thirteen. Two years later, he was among the five nominated for the S-class tournament, and went in, _alone."_

Guessing it was uncommon for a sorrow to go into the tournament, alone, Cove tried to look shocked.

"And then he _won." _El said. "And these are against the best of the best guildmembers in Uhssi."

"That's how he got the nickname 'Lone Ranger'. He's always taken missions by himself, and this just sealed the deal." Fina said.

He made a record. Youngest guildmember to ever reach the S-class at fifteen, the previous being nineteen." El said, crossing her arms behind her head. "No one's ever going to beat that."

"It's rare for people to even obtain _B-class _at age fifteen, let alone enough of a reputation and an A-class ranking to qualify for the S-class tournament." Fina chimed in.

"Then... how did he manage to do it?"

"Oh, there's tons of rumors behind that." El said. "Some say he cheated, some say he was getting help, but the most popular rumor is that with a single stroke of his scythe," Fina slashed her arm through the air. "He sliced open a portal to the Distortion World and had the god of hell, Giritina himself, come through and tore his opponents to pieces!"

El and Fina laughed at the joke. Cove paled a moment, then shook her head, giggling as well.

"Yeah, no one really knows how he managed to do it." Fina said after the laughter died down. "He's just _that good." _there was a pause. "Anyways, we need to get going. Our train leaves in a half-hour and the lines are packed at this time of day."

o.0.o.0.o

Moon Kiyoko nervously fiddled with the hem of her transparent yellow crop top over her red t-shirt. She then went to brushing unseeable dust off of her black shorts, the gold chain handing on the loops jangling with the action. Still jittery, she kicked her knee high yellow socked and black and gold colored shoes back and forth.

Slowly, she stopped this then sighed, golden ninetails ears flattening against her head to show her worry, her tails drooping similarly. Her fingers moved to twirling her golden, orange streaked hair around her finger.

As her blue eyes landing on her friend, the sixteen-year-old bit her lip. Poor Giselle. The espeon sorrow worked so hard to cure the villagers of this disease, yet she falls sick in an odd twist of irony. Moon was fearful, with as much time as her twin was spending with her, no doubt she'd fall to the mysterious illness as well.

She could not believe how this had turned out. Finally, she got a chance to leave her guild, the Amazee, to visit home, and she comes home with half of them dying of Arceus knows what illness. And the Elder _knew _that they were sick. He promised that Giselle, the towns most talented healer, would be able to cure the sickness. Now she's sick too. And even though Giselle figured out the cure_, _he _still _didn't send a cry for help. He said that he could 'handle it'. But he obviously was not 'handling it'.

So with much insistence, Moon managed to get him to sign off on sending a job to the eastern guild, Three Spirit. Secretly, however, she sent a second request: to have someone investigate the Elder and his odd behavior. Moon grew up with the Elder. She knew that he treated all of his citizens like family. Why is he suddenly so uncaring now? It all left a bad taste in her mouth, and she couldn't investigate as Giselle's twin, Koli, demanded that she guard her.

Suddenly, the door opened, and speak of Giritina, the umbreon sorrow walked in.

Her hair was black as night tied in a ponytail, with loose hair hung by her face and even bangs across her forehead, the ponytail falling to her shoulders. Umbreon ears hung flat instead of sticking up, an Umbreon tail making itself evident by flicking back and forth in... worry? Annoyance? Moon couldn't tell.

A thin gray ribbon was stretched across the bangs hairline, a yellow ring hanging down over her bangs. A scarf wound loosely around her neck, white around her neck, fading to black as it fluttered down to her knees. Circles accented the scarf, red in the white area and yellow in the black area.

Her outfit looked like that of a ninja, a full outfit of black, covering her chest and down to her knees.A gray tanktop was under the black, a red sash around her waist, yellow bands wrapped around her knees. Her sandals were black, showed her toes, and was accented with yellow. Under her pants were gray shorts, yellow rings on her thighs. Finally, unattached gray sleeves were under unattached black sleeves, going from her wrists to just under her shoulders. Yellow accented the sleeves, making a circular design on them.

Crimson red eyes fell on her twin. Moon had grown up with them, and, as one could imagine, there was an enormous amount of shock when identical twin eevee sorrows were suddenly an umbreon and espeon, different as night and day.

"_Well, it wasn't like they were similar as Eevee's, outside of looks." _she thought as Koli crossed the room, pushing her twins light purple bangs off her forehead and checking for temperature. While Koli was showing a sweet gesture to her twin now, in actuality, she was quite ruthless. She hardly spoke a word unless she wanted to get a point across, and if anyone dared to cross her or hurt Giselle, they could trust to get a dagger run through them. She was so quiet that, if it weren't for her striking presence and aura that demanded fear, no one would even notice her in the room.

Giselle, on the other hand, was quite the opposite, in both looks and personality. She had purple hair and dull gray eyes, and usually wore light colored clothes. She wasn't nearly as graceful or confident as her twin, always tripping over her own two feet and stumbling over words to the point where, if a person addressed her, she would go into a fit of stutters as she attempted to answer. Her espeon ears were always folded down meekly, her tail almost always laying limp. While Koli was considered the 'attacker', Giselle was the 'healer', both the best at their given titles in the village.

"Any news, Koli?" Moon asked gently. Even though they were childhood friends and she was one of the few people that Koli would speak in full sentences, Moon still knew that she had to tread very, very, _very _carefully when it came to Giselle.

"I got a message from their beautifly messenger." she stated. "Two separate teams accepted the missions."

"We've got two teams coming?" Moon asked. "At the same time?!"

"Indeed."

"That's great!" Moon cheered, throwing her fist in the air, though her cheer came out a little to loudly. Koli whipped out a dagger and pointed the blade right under her nose.

"Giselle has a headache." she stated coldly. Moon smiled, raising her hands in surrender.

"Sorry." she whispered. "That's great!" she whispered, throwing her fist up halfway. Though her gestures and voice showed much less enthusiasm, the excitement never died in her eyes.

A small hum drifted up the bed, causing both sorrows to snap their heads to Giselle.

"...Koli..." Koli was immediately standing over her sister. "... A team of sorrows is going to come here..."

"I know!" Moon whispered happily. "They're going to help get everyone better!"

"... We need to join the guild of the first team that comes to this house..." Giselle continued, voice hardly a whisper, eyes barely half open, almost as if she was in a trance. "... And we need to join their team..."

Then she closed her eyes and fell back asleep. Moon glanced at Giselle, then back at Koli.

"Was that a vision or a fevered delusion?" she asked.

"It was a vision." Koli responded.

"So I'm assuming you're going to leave once Giselle is better?"

"Indeed."

Moon furrowed her brow slightly. She wasn't to sure she was to comfortable with Koli and Giselle leaving. They were essentially the only line of defense for Ikesi Town, and with the Elder acting strangely, how could she leave to go back to the northwestern territory with her nerves intact?

Moon quickly shook her head.

She had to remain positive. There was two teams of from Three Spirit coming, after all.

But then she realized it was Three Spirit and she suddenly had a sinking feeling in her stomach.

o.0.o.0.o

**Amy47101 does not own pokémon or some of the characters/designs for characters. All rights go to their original owners.**

**Meet Jaxximus Hollowgale, aka, Jax! He was created by cluelessfail, and honestly, reading his history, I just felt bad for the poor guy. I mean, really. So I gave him a friend, Kai, and I gave him an opening for another friend, Faye. Hopefully I wrote him well enough. Also, to cluelessfail, the link to his umbrella failed both times. Wanna try again?**

**Also, Moon Kiyoko, created by A Lights Shadow, was brought in! It seems she has left her guild to visit home, only to be met with a looming tragedy!**

**So, yeah, I didn't change my characters much from the original concept designs, but Faye's introduction is way, way, way different from the original. Some of them also got some personality/quirk updates. Kai now apparently has no sense of direction whatsoever when he's on the ground and has trouble handling his money. XD**

**And a currency lesson! I will admit the currency I created is lazy, but I'm a lazy person!**

**Glossary:**

**Coin- The currency in Uhssi, consisting of coins. No paper money.**

**Gold- Worth one hundred coin.**

**Platinum- Worth fifty coin.**

**Silver- worth twenty-five coin.**

**Bronze- worth ten coin.**

**Copper- worth five coin.**

**Tin- worth one coin.**

**Still accepting OCs. Guide's in the authors notes of chapter two. ^.^**

**Amy47101 signing off! ^.^**


	5. Chapter 5

o.0.o.0.o

_Chapter Five_

"Oh, f*ck. Great Zapdos, strike me down with lightening."

Cove blinked at El, who had a single hand over her eyes. Cove only saw this positioning with her once before, and that was when Coren was around. So why wasn't she frantically trying to move Fina away-?

"Are you stalking us, you weirdo?!"

Ah. So they had already seen each other. That's why.

"Why if it isn't Miss Fina with her _lovely _companions. Elysia and..." he trailed off. "The new girl."

"Aaaw, I think you hurt her feelings." Asher said, twirling randomly in a circle as Cove suffered under the label 'new girl'.

"Her name is _Cove." _Fina growled out. "C-O-V-E. If I'm going to be forced to be around you, _at least _treat my team with respect."

"What was that?" Coren scratched the inside of his ear. "My, my, I thought I heard the voice of an obsessive ex. Must have been the wind."

"Obsessive-?!" Fina spluttered out before regaining her composure. "Yeah I'm obsessed. Obsessed with making sure perfectly good women don't start dating a prick like you!"

Despite the fierce glare that Fina cast him, Coren returned it was a lazy smile.

"My, dearest Fina, if you keep glaring at me, I'll be forced to make you smile." he flicked some bangs off his forehead. "And I _certainly _know what makes _you _smile."

A moment of silence.

"_BASTARD-!"_

"Not quite," Coren chuckled, dodging the flamethrower attack. "My parents were happily married when I was born."

"When I'm through with you, you're gonna wish you were never born!"

"So, why're you here, Clamor?" El finally asked after running her hand down her face with a frustrated sigh. Cove watched with horrified eyes as Coren and Fina continued to fight.

"WE GRABBED UP A MISSION TO-"

"Clamor, please do not _shout _our _investigation mission _to the world." Graves stated, crossing his arms.

"Um, guys?"

"Really?" El asked, cocking her head. "We're here for some rare berry that's only available underwater. We're sending Cove after them."

"Guys?"

"What're those supposed to do?"

"Guys?!"

"They're supposed to cure whatever sickness is plaguing these people."

"Guys! Guys, seriously!"

"That's so great~!" Asher sang.

"GUYS! Coren and Fina are fighting and _OH MY ARCEUS, THAT HOUSE IS ON _**_FIRE!_**_"_

Cove quickly summoned some water to douse the flames. Thankfully, there was practically no damage, but Fina and Coren continued fighting. Well, more like Fina was attacking and Coren was taunting relentlessly.

"Can't you guys do something to stop this?!" Cove asked, mortified by the damage. They all blinked.

"Well would you looks at that." El said, cocking her head.

"DO YA THINK WE SHOULD BREAK THEM UP?" Clamor asked.

"Why? They look like they're having such fun~!" Asher laughed.

"Idiot, they're going to destroy a town full of sick people!" Cove exclaimed.

"Ugh." Graves groaned, suddenly disappearing.

Suddenly, he appeared behind Coren and punched him on the head.

"Idiot, you're embarrassing me." Graves stated. "Imagine what you'll do to my precious reputation if word gets out that you're hurting sick children."

"Ugh, what reputation? The only reputation you have is being annoyingly arrogant." Coren said, crossing his arms.

"That's enough, Fina." El said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Any more and you're going to cut our reward in half."

Cove stared openmouthed. They... They nearly destroyed the homes of sorrows! How could they brush it off like normal?

Trying to shake it off, she smiled.

"We're all heading to the same place, right? Let's go together!"

o.0.o.0.o

_"Sister, what are you doing?"_

_"I'm not going to conform. I'll evolve into something else!"_

_"But it's an honor!"_

_"It's only temporary. Once they find an adult to take over, we'll be shoved aside."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"Then let's do it as we always did. Together."_

o.0.o.0.o

"_Something... What? ... to trust... him... not... some sort of... be? No... it... guild..."_

_"_She's been murmuring nonsense like that for the past few hours now..." Moon stated, concern obvious in her voice as Giselle's ears twitched with each word. "What delusions are these?"

"It's not nonsense." Koli stated, shaking her head.

"Another vision? So soon?" Moon sounded surprised. Koli wasn't surprised. Giselle very rarely told people about her visions, or how frequent she got them. Even she, her twin, had trouble discerning when she had one now. It was always so much easier when they were younger.

At that point, she and Giselle were living in the temple with the elder and the oracle. The oracle, all and all, was a very important member of the Uhssian culture. They were often very powerful psychic types and possessed an ability to have visions of the future and usually, sometimes unnaturally, strong abilities. The last oracle, a musharna sorrow, from what Koli knew, had been assassinated by a dark guild to 'symbolize' their power. The light guilds still hadn't captured the assassinator.

To say the least, there was panic. They needed a new oracle, or at least a someone to pose as an oracle, _fast. _Considering that she and Giselle were already acclimated to temple life, they began to put them through vigorous training courses in order to have one of them evolve. The Elder and other priests and priestesses quickly recognized her as the 'stronger twin' and wanted _her _to be the espeon.

That infuriated her.

Koli was never one to easily bend to another's will, and panic or no panic, she would _not _fit into this mold that they had planned for her. So she went digging, digging for a stone, any stone, to evolve her into something different. Giselle had tracked her down, and as the sun set and the moon rose, they evolved into espeon and umbreon, respectively, at the age of seven.

She relished in the shock on the Elder's face when they came back, she with raven hair and blood red eyes and she with pale purple hair and gray eyes, both good and bad. Very rarely do sorrows evolve so young. Most reach their final evolution in their twenties, depending on the amount of training or the items required to evolve. But that shock of awe was changed to shock of disappointment. Almost to quickly, they knew who was who, and they were disappointed, maybe even angered. They wanted the strong one to conform. They wanted the strong one to be what they wanted. And she went against it.

While she loved relishing in their negative attention, she quickly realized Giselle was drowning in it. She couldn't stand the attention. Days after their evolution, Giselle received the title of oracle. Everyone wanted a piece of the young new oracle. At this, Koli gained a title of protecter.

It quickly became evident that Giselle was talented, but also not fitting to be the oracle. She couldn't control her powers. She would read minds without meaning to, and visions would pop up at random. The visions would range from flashes of a nearby battle to what they were going to have for dinner that night. She froze up almost completely, and sometimes even passed out, whenever she had a vision, making her only thing she seemed to be flourishing in was her own special skill: healing.

Koli could remember vividly how Giselle would get visions and be so afraid that she would sneak into her bed. She was afraid to accept the responsibility. She was afraid of the attention. She was afraid of assassins. Even at a young age, Koli hated close contact with anyone, but those really bad nights, she'd hold and comfort her twin. Koli had always been so sure, so _prideful _about her choices. How they were always right. This was one of the first times that she was ever wrong. For her own foolish and arrogant gains, she pushed her twin into misery.

Eventually, what she predicted to happen had happened. The Elder eventually cast them aside, deeming Giselle as 'untrainable' to become the oracle. Even though a new sorrow became the oracle, even though everything seemed to return to normal, Giselle was still trying to gain control on her powers.

So Koli trained. She trained her body as well as her mind. She came to the point where she could almost completely block Giselle. After all, she didn't want her twin being worried about her when she had her own worries. She was fast, strong, and all in all, heartless. She didn't care if she had to kill or maim or harm. Nothing, in her mind, was more important than keeping her twin safe, repentance for forcing her powers onto her.

It was a shaky road, but Giselle slowly shook off some of her own flaws in her powers. If the visions popped up, she hardly ever came to Koli anymore. She didn't freak over any vision she had, and her healing touch seemed to get stronger. She still froze up with visions, but it usually passed in mere minutes. Only really, really traumatizing visions knocked her out.

While Koli fought and protected, Giselle healed and cared for sorrows. It was a near perfect match, a fighter and a healer. She was always there, no matter what, and it felt odd that she wasn't there, awake and well, smiling and quietly cautioning her to stay safe and be careful.

Silently, Koli placed a hand over Giselles forehead, once again pushing her bangs back.

"Someone's at the door." Moon stated, standing.

"Hn." Koli responded. Moon sighed, standing up and leaving the room to go and see who was calling. A few moments later, the small house was suddenly filled to the brim with noise. Laughing, arguing, yelling...

Did they not care that there was a sick person here?!

"I'll be back, Giselle." she stated, standing up and opening the bedroom door, where the noises only exploded against her ears even more. Scowling as she shut the door, she went down the stairs, and grabbed the nearest person, she didn't even care nor notice who it was. She then impressively flipped him over her shoulder and sent him flying across the room, knocking over a table and a chair or two until he landed with a thud against the far wall.

The other sorrows all stared at her, open mouthed.

"Giselle is sleeping." she stated simply before turning and going back up the stairs.

o.0.o.0.o

"I'm sorry!" Moon fussed over Asher, having learned his name with the others. "She's like that! Always getting protective of her sister and she's sick! Are you okay?"

"Wow..." he said, a dreamy look on his face. Moon blinked.

"Uh..."

Clamor suddenly let out a loud laugh.

"LOOK AT THIS GOOFBALL!" he bellowed. "HE'S SMITTEN!"

"Idiot!" hissed El, smacking a hand over his mouth. "She just flipped him across the room because all of us were so loud! Don't give her a _reason _to kill us!"

"She's not homicidal!" Moon quickly defended. "Just protective." she received a long stare from both teams. Moon chuckled. "But yeah, it would probably be best if you stayed quiet for now." Moon said. "So I'm sure that you know full well why each of you are here right now."

"The berries, right?" Cove asked. Moon grinned.

"Yep! I'm sure you saw the coast when you entered town. I'm sure if you can get just one, we can get Giselle healed up and she can get back to work on healing the other villagers. You have to go down pretty deep to get it, but I'm sure you can handle it, right?"

"O-Of course!" Cove insisted. In all actuality, however, she had no _clue _how deep she could go or how well she'd be able to survive in the water. Hopefully being a water-type sorrow gave her the ability to breathe underwater as well...

"Oh, good!" Moon cheered, clapping her hands then giving her a bag. "Here's this to carry them in! The cliff is north of town. Next to it is a set of stairs leading to a beach. There's a huge arch over it, so you really, really can't miss it."

"Guess that's our cue." El stated, stretching her arms above her head.

"Good." Fina stated. "I can't stand to even breathe the same air as him."

Coren simply smirked and shot her a wink.

"Let's go!" Cove and El exclaimed, both with forced cheerfulness, grabbing onto Fina and dragging her out the door.

o.0.o.0.o

Cove basked in the comfort of the waters around her.

At first, it was an extremely, extremely, _extremely _weird experience, considering she went from having legs and a skirt to having a freaking mermaid tail. Don't get her wrong, it was very beautiful and amazing. Aquamarine blue scales that glistened in the sunlight, the tail fanning out beautifully, the skin looking so delicate that she was sure her finger would go through it if she so much as poked it. But going from having two legs to one tail was... really, really awkward.

"How... am I supposed to change back, anyways?" she wondered to herself as she plucked more berries from the vines. At first, she also held her breath, afraid of drowning, before she realized that she was breathing through her water nose like she was breathing air.

She was still unsettled by the overall callousness of her teammates. How could they start a fight in a town with sick people, whom they were aware of, and not even care? How could El and Clamor and Graves could have a simple conversation like it wasn't even happening? Asher was even dancing like the goofball he was like all was well! She didn't understand it. It didn't make sense...

"Tin for your thoughts, stranger?"

Cove floundered as another sorrow appeared in her vision, upside down, blond streaked light brown hair floating around her. She grinned happily.

"Startled, stranger?" she asked.

"A bit..." Cove sighed, placing a hand over her heart. The young girl, around fifteen or so, grinned, blue eyes shining as she flipped around to face her. Cove blinked at her. She's a very petite little thing. Now that she was upright, Cove noticed that her hair was in twin tails on the back of her head, reaching her waste, while hot pink antenna's stuck out of her head. She was wearing a white midriff top that went off one shoulder, revealing her guildmark on the lower right side of her stomach. The mark was aqua blue and pretty simplistic, two curved lines crossing through each other, the ends curled, a circle on the one at the top.

What was most stunning was her tail. It had a patterning of blue and pink, diamond-shaped scales outlined with black. The end of the tail consists of four large, blue fins with pink ovals in their centers. Each of the tail fins overlaps the next slightly, causing it to resemble a fan.

"I'm Launa!" she grinned. "Milotic sorrow of the Mermaidian Song Guild in southwestern territory!"

"Cove..." Cove introduced slowly, staring at her. "Um, why are you here?" Cove wondered briefly if that was a stupid question. After all

"I heard that there was a village in the southeaster territory that was really sick! So I decided I was going to help them out. Then I jumped in the ocean and kind of swam-slash-let the current carry me _aaaaaaallll _the way here!"

"With no plan?"

"Yep!"

"Or extra items?"

"Nothing but my guild badge!"

"Okay..." Cove trailed off, trying to shake off the girls hasty decision. "Do you even know the village? Or what you need to do to help?"

She paused.

"I never thought about that." she stated. Then she simply laughed and shrugged "Oh well! I'm here now!"

"It's a good thing that we came across each other, then." Cove said, shaking her head. "I'm from the Three Spirit Guild in the southeastern territory. My teammates and I accepted a job to find the cure for the sickness."

"Really?" Launa gasped happily. "Then let's get some! C'mon, c'mon!"

o.0.o.0.o

"And he doesn't even have the audacity to remember her name! The nerve of the bastard!"

"Yeeeeep." El sighed, sitting on a boulder on the beach as Fina paced back and forth in front of her, ranting and raving about Coren. Honestly, she was used to it, and quite frankly, stopped listening and responding with coherent answers about twenty minutes ago.

"How long do you think Cove will take?" Fina asked, climbing up next to her. El shrugged.

"Who knows?"

"Do you think she's okay?" Fina asked, staring out at the ocean that their friend has recently entered.

"Why're you asking?"

"She seemed really upset earlier, after Coren and I fought. And then she was really quiet."

"She's always been quiet." El responded.

"No, like she was thinking." Fina said, waving a hand in the air. "Do you think she's mad?"

"Cove? Please." El shook her head. "That girl's got a heart of gold, and if it isn't gold, it's damn close to it."

"I think we freaked her out. The sudden fight and all..."

Both were silent for a moment.

El suddenly punched Fina in the shoulder.

"Your big sis instincts are kicking in again!" she said with a loud laugh. "Don't feel guilty. Everything will be fine!"

"Guild members?"

They both turned to see an old man, hunched over and holding what appeared to be a picnic basket.

"Yeah?" El asked, cocking her head as the old guy continued to descend the steps.

"Care for a bite with a lonely old man?"

El and Fina shared a glance. How adorable was it that this little old man made them lunch and everything just for some company?

"Sure," Fina grinned, hopping down. "Why not?"

o.0.o.0.o

"So what originally made you suspicious that something was wrong with the Elder?" Graves asked Moon as they took seats in the living room. Clamor was lounging in an arm chair and Asher had taken a seat close to the stairs, eagerly awaiting the umbreon's appearance again. Moon shifted away from Coren, who took a seat next to her despite the other available couches and chairs, then spoke.

"Well, it was normal for a while. The Elder was always a strict man, but kind at the same time. He wants to push us to be our best, and villagers who joined guilds were praised and guildmembers were always welcomed. But suddenly things... changed." she paused. "First it was the sickness. At first we thought it was just a passing bug, something everyone would get over. But it just got worse. Giselle tried healing them, she's a really strong healer, by the way, but when she finally found the cure, she got sick."

"Who's Giselle?" Coren asked. Moon stared at him, picking up on the fact that his tone suggested he held other interests outside of simple curiosity.

"Don't try anything with her." Moon stated, crossing her arms, recalling her first encounter with the luxray. A compliment, followed by a punch from Fina, which erupted into an argument and finished with Koli throwing Asher across the room. "Koli will slaughter you."

"So Koli's her name?" Asher asked excitedly, practically jumping across the room. Moon stared at him. Did this guild take anything seriously?

"Yes. Again, don't try anything with either of them. Koli _will _slaughter you if you go near Giselle, and if you don't interest her, you'll probably just be ignored." she paused. "And I'm not exaggerating on that." she turned back to Graves. "Anyways, Giselle is Koli's twin. She's an espeon sorrow with some amazing talent."

"Amazing talent? Exaggerate on that." Graves stated.

"Well, it's kind of a long story, but essentially there's a very important person in this town called the oracle. That person is usually a very strong psychic type with unusual abilities, specifically visions of the future. Very _detailed _visions of the future." she fiddled with the hem of her shirt. "You should know about the oracle. They're like Pathmasters. They're very important, as they're _major _information holders. The provide a lot of info to Central. For a price." she grinned. "Lets just say... The oracle's help is hard to get, as you have to get approval from the guards to even _enter _the temple."

"Sounds like a pain." Coren mused.

"You don't even know half of it." Moon stated, folding her ears back, as if remembering something unpleasant. "You might have been a little young to remember, but there was a _huge _media craze about a decade back."

"I remember." Clamor stated as quietly as he could, which wasn't very quiet at all. "The espeon and umbreon twins." he blinked. "No wonder Koli looked familiar."

"Were you friends with them?" Moon asked, cocking her head.

"NOPE." Clamor said, forgetting his volume. Graves shot him a glare, and he quickly adjusted it. "My Dad was really into it. He dragged me to the ceremony and wanted me to meet the 'most important girl on the eastern side of Uhssi'."

"Is she this 'oracle'?" Asher asked.

"Nope." Moon shook her head. "She _was _for about a year. But she couldn't handle it. So they found a 'new' oracle and-"

She let out a squeak as a throwing knife suddenly plunged into the cough, nearly piercing her hand had she not moved it. Everyone shifted their gaze to Koli, who was glaring menacingly.

"They do not need to know that." she stated simply.

"Er... right." Moon said, saluting to her. "Sorry, Koli!"

"Hmph." Koli said, turning around and going back to whichever room she came from. Moon let out a weak chuckle.

"So, yeah. Giselle tried to heal them. When she announced the berry, the Elder left the temple and offered her a personal meal." she paused. "Now this isn't unusual, he usually always gave food to the villagers. But am I in the wrong to think there's something up with all of this when Giselle, our best healer and the girl who knows the cure, suddenly get's deathly ill after this meal with the Elder, who had no communications with the Crosswire twins since they were at _least _eight?"

"So what're you suspecting?" Graves asked. "Poison?"

"There's something wrong." Moon insisted. Graves opened his mouth to ask another question, when Koli suddenly bolted down the stairs and wrenched open the door. She paused, turned back to the couch and grabbed her dagger, then pointed it menacingly at Asher.

"Stay here and watch over Giselle." she stated. Asher grinned, ecstatic about having Koli trust him with a task. Sheathing the dagger, Koli turned back to the others.

"All of you come with me."

"Koli!" Moon exclaimed, jumping up and rushing out the door after her friend, leaving the rest of the Emblem Brothers without much of a choice but to follow. "What's going on?!"

"Giselle had a vision."

o.0.o.0.o

"We have so many of these things, I'm sure that the whole place will be cured!" Launa sang out happily, tossing some more berries into the bag that Cove received from Moon. Cove nodded. Launa blinked.

"Okay, seriously. Are you always this quiet or is it just me?"

"... Something happened today that bothered me, that's all."

"... What is it?"

"Are the light guilds... callous?"

Launa paused, staring at her. Then she smiled warmly.

"You're going to have to exaggerate a bit there, Cove."

"I'm saying, if they start a simple fight, over something trivial, will they not care if they hurt villagers?"

"... You're talking about Three Spirit, aren't you?"

Cove flinched.

"Yeah." she smiled. "I saw your guildmark."

"Today, the leader of my team got into a fight with her ex, who's on another team. The fight got so bad that they accidentally set a house on fire, but the only one who seemed to care or notice was me." she sighed. "Am I a bad person for doubting my choice to join the guild?"

A pause. Launa sighed, seemingly frustrated.

"Listen." she stated. "I'm not all that good at giving advice. Three Spirit has a reputation for... making messes."

"So they always destroy places without a care."

"Yeah. But you wanna know something different about them?"

Cove blinked at her.

"Most guilds will have them take the damage off of reward money or have Central pay for the damages. But Three Spirit never rolled with what was normal." she grinned. "Apparently, they send the team down who caused the damage, no matter how big or small, and they help rebuild the town." Launa gave her a good pat on the back with a bright grin. "So cheer up and lets get to the surface!"

Cove blinked, then smiled, swinging the bag over her shoulder.

"Okay!"

o.0.o.0.o

**A new OC makes an appearance! The spontaneous and optimistic Launa by maycontestdrew! She'll probably play a larger role a bit later, but as of now, she's a sense of comfort and relief to Cove.**

**To THE CREATOR: I cannot accept your OC as she does not follow the guidelines. Due to you being a guest, I can't exactly PM you, so a review response will ahve to do. Please refer to the guidelines in the authors notes of chapter two if you want your OC to be used.**

**So we got some backstory on Koli and Giselle, and Asher is smitten as a skitty with Koli.**

**So, yeah.**

**Amy47101 signing off! ^.^**


	6. Chapter 6

o.0.o.0.o

_Chapter Six_

"Okay, Kai," Jax stated in an annoyed manner, keeping a firm grip on the back of the other's sorrow's jacket. The flygon was holding Faye's hand, and she looked as confused and exhausted as her head moved between his voice and Kai's carefree laughter. "Keep heading _west _to get to the western territory."

"Righy-o!" Kai grinned, turning north.

"Idiot!" Jax hissed, clamping a hand on his shoulder. "That's north!"

"No, it's a shortcut!" Kai said happily.

"No, it's _not." _Jax said, running his hand down his face. "I swear, Faye could make it to the western territory easier than you, and she's not even from Uhssi!"

"You're not from Uhssi?" Kai asked, cocking his head as he turned to look at her. Faye smiled.

"Yeah."

"That's cool!"

"I... I guess."

"Kai," Jax sighed. "Just fly, okay? I don't need you to go and get lost with no one to show you the way back." he paused. "Especially with her."

"Fine." Kai sighed, placing a hand on Jax's shoulder. "Don't worry to much about us. I'll keep her safe."

"I said I could handle myself!" Faye insisted. She paused. "Wait, what about me?" she asked, pointing to herself. "I can't fly, so..."

"Simple!" Kai grinned, scooping her up like she was weightless. Faye squeaked in surprise, gripping her small suitcase in her hands. He grinned, flapping his wings and lifting a few inches off the ground. "I'll drop by again soon Jax!"

"You'll drop by when you need money again." Jax stated simply. Kai winked.

"You know it!"

"I'm keeping track of how much you owe me."

"I know!" Kai grinned. "Thanks for that!"

"Idiot, that's a bad thing!" Jax said, facepalming.

"Seriously, I'll see you soon, okay? Don't get lost on the paths!"

"Thats ironic, coming from you." Jax answered simply. Kai simply grinned, then flew off, thankfully, in the right direction.

Jax turned, opening his umbrella and planning to fly back, when a sudden shiver went up his spine. He slowly glanced around, taking in his surroundings, suddenly catching a glimpse of purple behind a tree.

"You." he said, making sure his voice was clear and deadly serious. "I know you're there."

Suddenly, a very creepy giggle came out from the trees, a pale, petite sixteen-year-old girl coming out from the shadows of the trees. The purple he caught sight of was her hair, straight and reaching her mid-back, the ends curled slightly. Red eyes glanced over him, as if studying him like a specimen in an experiment, a creepy, dare he say, _insane,_ smile on her face. The witch-like hat that she wore, looking similar to that of a mismagius, shaded her face almost perfectly, increasing the creep factor.

She was wearing a layered strapless dress, the same shade of purple as her hair, a scarf tied around her waist like a belt, the ends falling past the skirt, fading to a pink color. One her feet were knee-high boots, purple, pink at the stop. Around her neck was a gem with three red gems and on the back of her left hand was her guildmark, colored blood red.

He narrowed his eyes. She grinned back.

"Serena." he stated simply, recognizing the mismagius sorrow from his guild. He crossed his arms. This girl always followed him around for no real reason, it seems. At first, she would talk without stopping for hours, and no matter how much he ignored her or yelled at her or anything, she kept coming back and talking and talking and talking. Suddenly, she stopped talking, and began watching from afar. Now he had no idea which was worse; this, or the incessant talking. "You're following me again."

"I saw you holding hands with that girl." she suddenly said. "Girlfriend?"

"I literally just met her under an hour ago." he said, voice clipped. "She's blind, so I had to lead her out of the guild."

"You could have dragged her out by her ears."

"That's sadistic."

"So?"

"What do you want, Serena?" he finally asked after a pause.

"To make sure I don't have a rival or anything." she grinned almost, dare he say, maliciously, staring at the spot where Kai flew off with Faye. A dark aura seemed to surround her for a moment as she began murmuring inaudible things under her breath. Jax took a step away from her for good measure.

"Go back to the guild." he said. He immediately regretted it, as Serena snapped her gaze to him.

"No." she stated simply, holding out a piece of paper. "Let's go on a mission together!"

Jax stared at the mission in hand. An simple C-class job wanting them to travel to the boarder between the southern and southeastern territory to check up on some 'suspicious characters'. A cheap job for cheap pay when both of them could easily take on A-class missions.

"Let's go on a mission together!" she insisted, though her grin seemed to falter for a moment before it came back in full force. Jax stared at her, then sighed in defeat, figuring that a happy Serena was better than an angry Serena.

After all, she kind of had a _thing _for violence.

o.0.o.0.o

Asher happily moved about the kitchen, overjoyed that Koli chose him to watch over her sister.

"Now let's see..." Asher hummed, looking in the fridge and grinning at the sight of honey. "We'll put some of this in the tea..." he trailed off, spotting a bottle of maple syrup. Happily walking over to the steaming cup of tea, he dumped the contents of both bottles into the mug. Happy with the sweet concoction, he picked it up. "Bottoms up!"

"Who are you?"

Asher turned and saw a young woman in a white nightgown with a light purple blanket around her shoulders, long, lavender colored hair falling to her lower back, face flushed with fever, light gray eyes staring at him quizzically and almost as though she was scared of him. Despite that, she tried to keep an upright posture with a hand on the doorframe.

"Hey, you're Giselle, right?" Asher grinned, setting the cup down. She continued staring at him, then mutely nodded. "I'm Asher, Koli's friend."

"Koli doesn't have friends." she murmured, taking a step back.

"Well, now she does!" Asher smiled. "She asked me to take care of you while she went out with my friends. Something must have happened." Giselle still seemed wary, refusing to take a step closer. "I'm a part of the Three Spirit Guild." he offered helpfully. Giselle snapped her head up at that.

"Three... Spirit...?"

"Yep!" Asher said, setting the untouched mug of tea down on the table. "I made some tea. You can have it if you want."

Giselle shuffled across the floor and sat down, staring curiously at the cup. While Asher prepared another for himself, Giselle took a sip, then immediately began coughing.

"You okay?!" Asher whirled around, staring at her.

"I'm fine." she wheezed. "It's just... really, really sweet."

"I know!" Asher grinned. "I put, like, fifteen sugar cubes in it, along with honey and maple syrup for good measure!"

Giselle momentarily gaped at him, trying to figure out how in the world he managed to get it all to dissolve in the tea. Realizing it was rude to gape, she moved her gaze back to the mug. Asher continued to hum happily, seemingly not noticing her rudeness or dislike for the tea.

"You sure you should be up?"

She blinked, turning her head to him. His worried look was plain on his face.

"Koli made it out like you were on your deathbed."

"That's just Koli. She always overreacts when it comes to me." Giselle said, folding her hands. "But... it was pretty bad at one point. Had I'd been a normal sorrow, I surely would have died." she paused. "I'm still pretty weak, too. I had to take a couple breaks coming down the stairs."

"Then why'd ya come in and talk to me? I could've been a bad person, you know!"

"Well... I just..." she trailed off, face going red from the attention. "I sensed your energy, and when I came down here... I was expecting a child, honestly."

"Must have been the surprise of your life!" Asher said, taking the comment with stride.

"I sensed a lot of different energies at once, including Moon's and Koli's. I... recognized three of them from a vision I had. Are they your friends?"

"Probably! I'm on one team and there's another team here too. The have a vaporeon sorrow named Cove." he sat across from her, not noticing her tea going untouched. "What'd these energies look like?"

"You don't see energies, you feel energies." Giselle quietly corrected. Asher grinned, correcting himself.

"What'd they feel like?"

"One was fiery and passionate, like a flame, almost. Yet at the same time, it was naturally a born leader, very responsible and careful." she trailed off, glancing to the side. "Maybe even gentle... motherly, perhaps?

"That sounds like Fina." Asher mused. "She's the leader of Team Evolution. It's funny you compared her to a flame, since she's a flareon and all."

"The second was very... very protective and reckless. This energy takes it upon itself to make sure others are safe. It's like... like..." she tapped her fingers on the table, brow furrowing as she tried explain it. "Regret? I'm not sure. It's a very complicated energy."

"Can you tell the gender by the energies?"

"This one was a female."

"Oh, that's Elysia then, El for short." Asher grinned. "She likes walking along the edge of crossing the line and danger." he laughed. "She describes it as 'Some people say there's a line to cross between sanity and insanity. I probably have a foot on each side.'"

"That sounds correct."

"Well, there seems to be a pattern." Asher laughed. "If we follow that pattern, I'd say the next one would be Cove, the newest recruit. What'd you sense off her?"

"Immense pain and sadness." Giselle stated immediately, ears folded against her head.

"Pain...? Fina and Coren got in a fight earlier. Did she get hit?"

"Not physical. Mental." Giselle trailed off, squeezing her eyes shut, face screwing up in concentration. "Something... something's really, really wrong. On the inside, very, very deep in her mind... there's this... this _depression." _she snapped her eyes open. "This is a very complicated energy. The most complicated I've ever come across."

"Don't force it. Maybe if you ask her-"

"No," Giselle shook her head. "This girl... This Cove, outside of the depression buried deep... She's like a blank slate." Giselle casted her glance down to her hands, only to see them shaking. "It's like... her previous energy was lost, only lingering... and now she has to-" she suddenly cut herself off as she snapped her head up, shoving her chair back and looking over her shoulder.

"Giselle?" Asher asked.

"Y-You said Koli asked you to watch me, right?"

Asher cocked his head for a moment, then grinned.

"Yep! I'll do anything for Koli!"

"Someone's coming." Giselle said fearfully. "And it's not a good person."

Asher stood, ears erect with alertness, trying to hear what Giselle sensed. There was a moment of silence. All he heard was the wind...

Suddenly, the wall behind them blew up. Asher practically threw himself over Giselle in order to protect her from flying debris. Giselle began coughing on the smoke, and Asher squinted through the smoke, trying to see what happened.

"Aaaaaw, you're both alive? Boo."

Asher blinked as a small girl, maybe fifteen years old, stood in the gaping hole in the wall, looking rather disappointed. She had black hair, cut in a pixie cut that framed her face gently and silver eyes that flashed between them curiously. Her skin was deathly pale, and she was wearing a loose flowing black and white dress. The sleeves were black, near skin tight, and go down to her wrists. Along these sleeves is a draping material, black on the outside and yellow on the inside, reminding him oddly of an emolga's gliders. He quickly realized why as he saw emolga ears on top her head. An emolga sorrow. After the sweetheart neckline she has a white corset, beginning just under her breasts. The skirt which bursts out from underneath the corset is a pure white, ending about halfway down her thighs, where he could just barely see the ends of a skirt hoop, broken to be short enough for the skirt. Beneath her skirt, she wears white tights. Her feet are covered by white, Mary-Jane style shoes, which finish off the almost doll-like outfit she sports.

"Now I'm going to have to chase you down." she sighed, pushing her bangs off her forehead, revealing a widow's peak. "Aw well. The more I chase you, the more fun I'll have killing you. After all, pain is hilarious!"

o.0.o.0.o

"Sorry, bucko." El said, twisting the old man's wrist in such a way that if he even flinched, it would break. "But I know a liar when I see one."

"Heh, perceptive, if not foolish." he responded, suddenly bringing his knee up and ramming her in the stomach. El grunted in pain, forced to let of his wrist to stumble back.

"Oh, you're a ballsy one." El grinned hand over her stomach. Something felt... off. She knew what it was like to get kneed in the stomach, and she knew that it wasn't supposed to burn. It was supposed to be a jolt, maybe followed by some nausea and a little trouble breathing. But this was like a burning sensation, spreading throughout her stomach and into her veins. She wanted to wince, but decided against that. She didn't like this guy, and she didn't want to show _any _weakness in front of him. So she continued speaking. "That could've broke your wrist."

Now her knees were shaking. No, something was definitely wrong.

Suddenly, her legs gave out, and she was lying on her stomach in the sand. El blinked in surprise. She wasn't this weak. She tried moving to stand up, but to no avail. She tried to move her hands, increasingly frustrated by total lack of movement. Had this guy attacked her with some sort of poison move when she wasn't looking? It was as if everything from the neck down was completely paralyzed...!

With much effort, she managed to lift her head to see Fina in the sam predicament. This was no attack. Then... it must have been...

"You poisoned the food."

"Guilty."

"And the villagers?"

"Guilty."

"Why?"

"If I told you, where would that get me?"

"Touché, you bastard. I take back what I said about you being ballsy. You're a coward. You won't even fight me head on."

"I'm not the fool who ate poisoned food."

"Who the hell disguises themselves as a trusted Elder and poisons the villagers? If I'm going down, I wanna see the bastard who did it."

"Silly girl, this is no disguise."

"Oooooh! The poison worked well, I see~." a new voice said. El saw a tall man, maybe seventeen or so, land in front of them.

He was wearing a white dress shirt with a purple tie. He had on black pants with black loafers, and purple suspenders dangling from the waistband. A dark violet-nearly black-trench coat was around his frame, and two purple belts wound in a criss-cross formation around his waist, over the trench coat. Several vile's hung from the belts, and what looked like a police hat sat atop his head, a silver bat-like image on the cap. Purple hair peeked out from under the cap, and bright red eyes flared at them from under the shadows of the brim of the hat. Four bat wings came from his back, holding him aloft in the air. El recognized what type of Sorrow he was. A crobat.

"Ri." the Elder said. Ri kneeled down, poking at Fina's forehead.

"So these are light guild members?" he asked. "If they weren't do Arceus-damned pathetic, I'd say they're pretty cute."

Fina's temper seemed to flare up at that, so El watched humorously as she snatched said finger in between her teeth and bit as hard as she could.

"Ow!" Ri cried out. "Ow, ow, ow, ow! You're going to bite it off! That's my Yahtzee finger! I need that!"

Fina didn't respond, instead grinding her teeth together even harder.

"Shit, I think she's actually gonna take it off!" Ri cried out, pounding his fist into Fina's head. "Let go, let go, let go!"

The Elder walked across the beach and yanked on Fina's hair, forcing her to let go.

"Dammit." Ri cursed, holding his now bloody finger. Fina glared at him, spitting out the blood.

"Serves you right, you stupid bastard!" El shouted at him. Ri glared at her.

"I'm going to whip up a concoction special for you, Sparky."

"So it was you."

There was a long dreaded silence as Ri whipped around, only to have Koli's dagger slash him across the chest. He winced at the wound, flapping his wings in order to get out of her way. Koli only looked up at him, the fiercest glare imaginable on her face.

"You're going to die for what you did to my sister."

o.0.o.0.o

"It's insane up there!" Launa exclaimed, coming back down. Cove widened her eyes. "There's a crobat and some sort of cloaked figure hunched over-maybe and old guy? Yeah, they're fighting an umbreon sorrow and there's a flareon and jolteon sorrow laying on the beach!"

"Koli..." Cove trailed off. "Fina and El! Those two are my teammates!"

"Crap..." Launa sighed, putting a hand to her forehead in exasperation. "We've gotta think of something."

"I'm a little worried." Cove murmured. "If Fina and El were attacked, and Koli isn't with Giselle, then where is she? Or the Emblem Brothers and Moon?"

"I'm going to guess the Emblem Brothers is another team." Launa said. "Crap, we need to think of a plan before someone gets killed!"

"We can't just waltz up onto the beach!" Cove exclaimed.

"I know the move Surf! Maybe if I do that we can wipe everyone out!"

"With my teammates?!" Cove panicked. "One of them's a fire type, that could be fatal!"

"You're right." Launa stated. "But we can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"Um..." Cove was wracking her brain for an idea, trying to think of something. An idea suddenly popped in her head as she glanced at Launa again. "Launa, what were you wearing before you jumped in the water?"

"Hm? Jeans and white sneakers." she responded. "That's what cool about being a water type. The clothes we wear will be fine when we go from having a fin to having legs. Pretty handy."

"I look a little more flashy, I'm afraid to say." Cove sighed, rubbing the back of her head bashfully. "So here's an idea. What if I create a distraction and you crawl out of the water and give one of these to El and Fina. Once they're healed up, they might pose a better chance at arresting them."

"That's pretty good." Launa grinned. "You sure about being a distraction though? These guys poisoned all these people. They're aiming for murder."

"I don't care." Cove said, passing the bag to her. "After curing them, ask for directions to Giselle's house. Giselle needs this really badly. She's the healer, and she'll be a huge help."

"Right!" Launa grinned, taking the bag. "Listen, don't get killed okay? You're a pretty cool person. I wanna see you at the next Central meeting so we can enjoy the festival, okay?"

Cove had no idea what that meant, exactly, but a festival couldn't be a bad thing. So she nodded and smiled to reassure her.

"Okay."

o.0.o.0.o

Asher skidded to a stop, Giselle on his back piggy-back style, gaping at the fight going on around him. He saw his fellow team members fighting two sorrows, one male and one female, each close to around twenty years old.

The male was tall, tallest of everyone in the group at the time, was wearing loose fitting clothing. A haori crossed over his chest, tied with a thick red obi. Sleeves reached his wrists, but were cut so that from his elbow down showed. The excess cloth hung loosely, almost like kimono sleeves, becoming a darker shade of green near the edges. Loose green pants were on his legs, tucked into dark green boots that reached his knees. A dark green vest hung loosely over his frame, the hem reaching his knees. Overtop the vest was a green ribbon, accenting greatly against the red sash under the vest.

His hair was dark green, and no doubt would reach his shoulders if not tied back into a high ponytail. Green bangs hung over his forehead almost covering his narrow, amber eyes, hair framing his stern-set face as he expertly wielded a katana. Asher struggled for a moment, trying to figure out what kind of sorrow he was. A grass type, judging from his attacks. Maybe a grovyle?

He expertly jumped out of the way as a blast of psychic energy crashed down near him.

Above them floated the young woman donned in black and white victorian clothes, a ruffled, layered back dress donned with white ribbons and big elaborate white ruffled sleeves around her wrist. On each layer of her dress was a big white bow, a black cape around her shoulders, tied with a white ribbon. Her skin was so pale it was almost gray, eyes the palest blue they could get before they went gray. She had long, dark gray hair done up in elaborate pigtails, the left one adorned with a white bow. Judging from her attacks, she was a gothitelle.

Asher found her particularly unsettling as when she looked at them, her eyes were entirely dead, like the lights were on, but no one was home.

"Coren!" Asher called out. "Where's Koli?!"

"She went down below to fight a crobat sorrow!" he shouted, cursing as the grovyle took another stab at him. "Dammit, give me an opening to go down there! I need to make sure she's okay!"

"Come back here~!" Asher heard Amelia sing out behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the Emolga drifting almost peacefully through the air, electricity crackling around her. "I'm not done _plaaaaaaayinnnng~!"_

"Target acquired." he heard the female above him say monotonously. Another blast of psychic energy. Asher let out a strong of childish curses as he dodged.

"Why would you bring her here?" Graves demanded, clamping a hand on his shoulder. "She's sick!"

"And leave her with that?!" Asher exclaimed, nodding to Amelia, who Clamor was trying to handle. "Koli would flip!"

"And you thought bringing her to an active battlefield was a better idea?!" Graves exclaimed, running a hand down his face. "Arceus, I _know _I'm the smartest guy here, but really?!"

"Dodge!" Asher exclaimed as a thunderbolt landed near him. He turned to Graves. "I have an idea!"

"Oh, this'll be good." Graves said, crossing his arms.

"Take Giselle onto the paths, and keep her there until the battle is done."

"Do you realize how dangerous the paths are for newcomers? I don't know if psychic types are more sensitive to it, but it's pretty mentally vexing on a new person, let alone a sick psychic type."

"But they're after her, right? They can't follow you onto the paths 'cause only ghost types can open a door to them. If we get rid of their target, maybe they'll leave."

Graves highly doubted that they'd leave, but he knew this was no place for Giselle to be. Plus he was a ghost type and Koli was a dark type. He didn't feel like dealing with her trying to slaughter him if Giselle got hurt.

So he unceremoniously took Giselle off of Asher's back, threw her over his shoulder, and allowed the darkness of the paths to engulf him.

o.0.o.0.o

Moon snuck down the steps, past the Emblem brothers battling the dark guild members, past the crobat fighting Koli, and practically crawling across the sand to reach Fina and El. Just as she reached Fina, she found herself staring into the eyes of a milotic sorrow with a bulging bag of berries over her shoulder, dragging El by under her arms next to Fina.

"Uh..."

"Duck!" she shouted as a blast of electricity hit them overhead. Had the fight moved down here?! She saw a gaping hole in the cliff above them.

"We need to move them." Moon insisted. "That might crumble then we'll all be screwed."

"Right!" the milotic nodded, slinging one of El's arms over her shoulder.

"Crap, sorry." El muttered as Moon helped with Fina. "I really, really can't move."

"Don't worry, I believe you." Moon said gently as she helped Fina, her legs dragging on the ground as she was taller than her.

"I'm Launa." the milotic said. Moon blinked at her friendliness in the midst of a battle.

"Moon." she said.

"Mermadian Song Guild."

"Amazee."

"I came to help!"

"It's good to have you, then."

The abrupt and sudden conversation was interrupted by a geiser of water suddenly burst from the ocean.

"And there's Cove." Launa grinned, taking the opportunity to stop to treat them. "Come on, lets flip them over."

Moon said nothing as the milotic flipped El over, barely conscious.

"Hey, Moon." Fina muttered. Moon took one of the berries from Launa, splitting it in half.

"Can you chew?"

"Good enough."

"Launa, treat them, I need to get the Elder...!"

"Don't." Moon blinked at the quiet voice, instantly recognizing the scratchiness that he hid behind it.

He was eighteen years old, pachirisu ears stuck out from pale blue hair, a big pachirusu tail peaking from behind loose white shorts. He had on a White sweatshirt with yellow trimmings over a light blu shirt. Blue fingerless gloves were on his hands, and white socks peaked from beneath off-white combat boots with blue trimmings. Dark blue-gray eyes flicked around the battlefield intently.

"Zap!" she exclaimed, calling him by his nickname. Apparently calling him by his actual name, Daniel, was 'detrimental to his work'. What was his work? An information broker. He often moved between her guild and the Warlord Crusaders with information on the other guild. He wasn't one to take sides, and will essentially sell any sort of information. At the right price, of course. The guildmaster of the two guilds were either extremely forgiving or extremely oblivious to what was going on around him, as Zap was still using them against each other to wrack up profit.

"You!" Moon snapped her head up in horror as she saw the village elder talking to a grovyle sorrow. It seems that, after all, the geiser caused the fight to move to the beach. She saw Clamor and Coren trying to fight off an emolga and a gothitelle sorrow. Graves was missing, and Asher was trying to help Koli against the crobat. "You promised that my debt would be paid off if I handed over the past oracle! I let you have her, now pay up!"

"E-Elder...?" Moon asked, staring at him. How... How could he betray all of them like this? And debt? What debt? How had he come into debt with criminals?!

Her thoughts were cut off by a startled scream of horror, only to realize it was hers. Why? Because the bloodied end of the grovyles katana was coming out of the middle of the Elders back.

"Your life will be enough payment." he said callously. Moon was, to say the least, freaking out. She may be a part of a guild, and she may have seen bodies before, but she's never, ever seen someone get killed right before her eyes. Despite the obvious betrayal, she still cared for the Elder. He was like a grandfather to all, and all she could think about was the times he would tell kids stories about Arceus and the great war, or stories about his adventures. She already knew that he was dead, no way he would survive that much blood loss, but still...

"You killed him!" she accused, feeling her hands come alight with fire. The grovyle looked across the beach at her. At his cold gaze, she flinched. There was nothing there. No remorse. No guilt. Nothing to indicate he felt bad about murdering an old man. In fact... he looked as if he was _enjoying_ her reaction. She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder, and knew it was Zap. He always got his feelings across through small gestures like that.

"I did. He owed us money and he didn't pay up." He stated, as if trying to test how far he could push her. He sheathed the weapon, glancing around. "Seems the oracle got away."

"That Dusknoir took her onto the paths." Moon saw the emolga sorrow drift downwards with a gothitelle. She cast a sly glance to the others around her. "Can we keep fighting?"

"There's really no point." the gothitelle said. Moon took a shuffled hesitantly away from them. The way the the gothitelle seemed to have almost doll like eyes was beginning to scare her.

"Yeah, but think of the fun!" the crobat grinned. There was a moment of silence as the grovyle, obviously the leader, seemed to contemplate the idea.

"You're all fools." Koli scowled, coming up beside Moon. "Giselle isn't the oracle."

"What do you have to gain by poisoning an entire village?" Moon asked shakily. "We're peaceful people. We wouldn't have been able to fight even if you attacked us."

"I just wanted to see if I could concoct the perfect poison." the crobat shrugged. "Still not perfect though. Which sucks."

"You could also call it a test of loyalty." the emolga said with a grin. "The elder proved it."

"Despicable." Koli spat. The emolga grinned.

"Thank you!"

"Amelia, that's enough." the grovyle said, turning to the gothitelle. "There's nothing for us here, and we're outnumbered." he paused, noticing the crobats pouting. "I'd prefer _not _to get arrested, Ri."

"Ugh, fine!" Ri through his hands in the air. "Fine, fine, fine!"

"Elizabelle." he turned to the gothitelle. "Teleport us out of here."

"Wait!" El shouted as the gothitelle's hands glowed blue in preparation to teleport. She was struggling to stand, using Launa as support.

"You shouldn't be moving!" Launa exclaimed.

"Diaki!" she shouted. Moon glanced between her and the other team. Diaki was a guys name, right? Was she talking to the grovyle or the crobat? "What the hell, you coward?! Get back here!"

There was a drawn out pause, when Moon suddenly saw a green blur go past her. She blinked as she heard a startled scream. Slowly, she looked over her shoulder and saw the grovyle- Diaki?- with his sword through her chest. The jolteon had her hand on his shoulder, using him for balance while Launa essentially began freaking out.

Uncaringly, and perhaps a bit maliciously, he ripped the blade free, and El just collapsed, like a doll someone had stepped on.

"What happened in the past, Elysia, was in the past." he stated simply, calmly turning and walking away, crossing the beach and back to his companions. "Elizabelle, my work is done."

"Of course." Elizabelle nodded, bowing her head. While they all freaked over El, the team of dark guild members disappeared in a flash of psychic light.

o.0.o.0.o

"Did you see the look on her face?!" Amelia laughed as she glided above them

"I know! It was priceless." Ri grinned. "Almost as good as the look on that umbreon's face when she found out her twin go sick!"

"That was a good call, Elizabelle." Amelia said, swooping down and patting her on the back.

"I would have felt guilty had her friends not torn my dress." Elizabelle said, keeping her blank look but looking at the torn layer on her skirt distastefully.

"You know, you can drop the disguise now." Ri said offhandedly to the grovyle. Said grovyle smirked, his imaged flickering before a moment before an entirely different man appeared before them.

He seemed a few years older than his previous form, eyes electric blue instead of amber, hair almost entirely different from the simple green ponytail that the grovyle had donned. Most of his hair is tied in a loose ponytail, however he has a mane of bangs that hang off to the side. The tips of his hair curl up and turn ebony. It was blood-red; reaches a little past his knees. It's very messy and unkept, and extremely poofy.

He was wearing an unzipped, sleeveless black leather jacket, with fur outlining the collar and armholes. Underneath the jacket is a dark grey muscle shirt. He had on black leather pants and combat boots have red spikes on the soles. On his arms are clawed gauntlets that extend just past his elbows. The claws are red, and the gauntlet is black. The only thing the now revealed zoroark and grovyle that he disguised himself as was their overwhelmingly tall height, making them both intimidating and easy to spot.

"I'll have to admit, the pain on her face _was _rather entertaining." he said. "And not jus the physical pain of being stabbed."

"You kept her alive, Seth." Elizabelle stated. "Why?"

"She's an interesting subject." he mused. "That team was unbearably close. Almost sickeningly so. When they separated, it was a pretty big event."

"Well, we tracked down one." Amelia shrugged. "What happened to the other two?"

"I think one of them joined a different light guild." Seth said offhandedly. "As for Diaki Genjuu..."

"I once heard he go recruited by the Stalkers of the Night dark guild." Elizabelle said.

"Recruited or snatched?" Ri asked, wincing at the thought. "Congrats if recruited, but he's a poor, poor bastard if they snatched him."

"He's as good as dead." Amelia giggled. "Oh, we should throw that in her face next time!"

"No." Seth immediately said. "That's no fun. Besides, that was just for kicks. We need to get back to our own guild to discuss the next move."

"It's weird he took interest in some random espeon." Amelia said. "What's so special about her?"

Seth smirked, crossing his arms.

"She's a very, very special espeon."

o.0.o.0.o

Kaze jerked his head up to the sound of glass shattering. He had stayed in the house with Viridi and Saffron for a number of days, under the insistence of the younger sorrow. He was flicking through some of the books that Viridi had, some of them silly legends and romance novels, some books on concocting plant based potions and such, but mostly whimsical, mind-numbing books of love and adventure.

"Kaze, we've got trouble!" Viridi exclaimed, dragging Saffron behind her, the breloom kicking and screaming that she wanted to fight. The leafeon locked the door behind her, as if trying to block whomever was attacking them.

"Viridi Rosewood! You're under arrest for the murders of Kasai Blaze, Maya Angels, and Sandra Lee!"

"Murders?" Kaze demanded, looking at her.

"You guys need to hide." Viridi muttered. "I know I didn't do anything, but these guys will tag you in with it as accomplices."

"No way!" Saffron shook her head. "We're like the Swords of Justice! One for all and all for one!"

Kaze was going to point out that he never agreed to this, but this was interrupted by the furious pounding on the door.

"Crap." Viridi murmured, grabbing both of them and dragging them to a small closet. "It's a little small..." she trailed as she opened the door, revealing a small, cramped space. "But I'm sure you'll fit."

Another crash, then a splintering of wood. Viridi shoved the two of them inside. Kaze grunted in annoyance as his wings were forced to be shoved in a rather uncomfortable position due to the sheer size of the space.

"Viridi-!" Saffron exclaimed, only to have the door slam in her face, plunging them in darkness.

There was more pounding on the door, then the splintering of wood. Some crashes here and there, and a terrified shriek from Viridi. Kaze shoved his hand over Saffron's mouth to prevent her from revealing their location, hearing shouts of victory from whomever broke into the house.

The slam of a door, presumably the front, then silence.

o.0.o.0.o

"U-Um..." everyone snapped their head to Giselle.

Her hair was now combed and clean, tied with white ribbons at the end. Hair framed her face, ends also tied with white ribbons, bangs falling evenly across her forehead. she was dressed now, almost akin to a princess. A silver tiara with a red gem in the middle went across her forehead, over her bangs. She wore a dress colored purple with light violet, borderline white, ribbons, slits up her legs and shorts of a darker shade underneath the dress so that she would be able to move around easier. Her shoes were a darker shade of purple, showing her toes, with thick purple ribbons and thinner silver ribbons. A couple of purple, both dark and light shades, silver, and white bangles dangled from her wrists, moon, sun, and star charms clinking against the metal with each movement. Her forked tail quivered as if frightened by having all the attention on her.

"U-Um... The wound was s-superficial. She's healed now, but s-she needs to rest."

"Oh, what a relief." Fina sighed, running hand down her face. Moon fell back in the couch, practically on the verge of crying. If one of these people had gotten killed on a job she begged them for help for, she would have broke.

Launa, Clamor, and Coren had taken the berries into the village in order to feed and heal the villagers of the poison. Asher initially wanted to stay in the house, but after Koli asked- correction, ordered venomously- Asher happily pranced out of the house with a "Yes Koliiii~!". Graves stayed behind with Cove, Fina, Moon, and Zap.

"Anyways." Moon opened the inventory on her badge and began flicking through the items. "I have your reward right here, for both of you." she glanced at them. "I'll send it to the leaders and you can divvy it up among you."

"Sounds fine to me." Fina said, taking out her badge.

"You said you had information on another mission?" Cove asked.

"Hm?" Moon muttered, eyes suddenly coming to light with realization. "Oh yes! Zap picked up a little while ago." she waved her hand to the pachirisu sorrow in the corner, who said nary a word since he got here. He offered a small wave.

"You're an odd one." Koli stated clearly, looking at him. Everyone stared at her. Giselle was staring at Zap, confusion clear on his face. After Koli spoke, Giselle snapped her head to her.

"I-It's n-nothing!" Giselle said hastily. "I-I'm just not r-reading any of your thoughts, even if though I-I'm actually t-trying this time." she paused, swallowing. "Um, usually I always hear bits and pieces."

"I'm blocking you." Zap said softly, rubbing his mouth with the back of his fist, as if trying to further muffle his voice. "I know a lot, so I keep my mind clear as a defense to mind readers."

"Oh."

"Anyways, it's kind of urgent," Moon said, glancing between them. "Which is why I'm really happy you brought a path navigator-"

"Excuse me," Graves said, offended. "Path_master."_

"You're a Pathmaster?" Giselle asked. Graves smirked arrogantly.

"Yes."

"You're so young!" she said in surprise.

"I can't say I'm not surprised as well." Koli said, crossing her arms. Graves smirked, happy he seemed to impress the unimpressible Koli. "I thought you were all talk." Graves arrogant smirk fell at that.

"What?! I am most certainly _not-"_

"Back to the information," Fina pressed. "What is it?"

Zap simply held up a mission. Cove recognized it immediately.

"That's the job Kai took." she said, glancing it over and seeing Viridi's face.

"You're associated with Kai?" Fina asked.

"On accident, honestly." Cove responded. "Is there information about where she is? Weaknesses or something?"

"It's actually much worse. Viridi Rosewood," Zap said, walking forward. "Is innocent."

o.0.o.0.o

**So holy crap, sixty one reviews by the sixth chapter? That... might just be the greatest review turnout I've gotten thus far.**

**Now, if any of ya'll noticed the summery, I pretty much closed submissions for OCs at the moment. Once you see what we've got for characters, you'll probably understand.**

**Light Guilds- 14 OCs**

**Dark Guilds- 19 OCs**

**Unaffiliated Forces(aka, they work for themselves and/or are loyal to neither dark or light guilds)- 10 OCs.**

**So that gives us a grand total of forty three OCs(or roughly around that. Can't do math in my head for the life of me), not including my own personal OCs(this includes the main characters/teams, some villains, some guild members/S-class members, and the guild leaders). So as you can see, this is a pretty damn huge project I'ma taking on. This is also the first time I ever accepted OC's in a story, so this is whole new stomping grounds for me.**

**Now you're all probably asking "Amy, isn't it incredibly ballsy of you to go and accept forty three OCs for a single story with a crazy concept? Shouldn't you have set a limit?" Well to that I say, fuck limits. This is gonna be an all or nothing project.**

**Now onto happier things... Introducing Ri the crobat. He was an old filler villain OC in the last story, but I decided to give him a slightly bigger role this time around. He's mine, as well as a new OC, Elizabelle the gothitelle. I wanted to name her Elizabeth, but I thought that was to old-fashioned, so I pulled a Fire Emblem and combined two names. Elizabeth and Belle. Elizabelle.**

**The mismagius at the beginning is Serena Magia by Moonlights Glow. Apparently she had a 'thing' for Jax. I hope I wrote her in character. Also by Moonlights Glow was the devious Amelia Hartmen. For some reason, she really freaks me out. It's like you decided to take a haunted doll and an evil child and smash it together. Evil kids always freaked me out, and dolls are kind of creepy. In a good way of course, because I really like her as a character.**

**Also introducing Zap, aka, Daniel! This guy was created by W.R. Winters. He'll have a bigger role later on, but right now, I'll give him a reason to be around. ^.^**

**And finally, Seth Blodeuwedd by kinnaaan! I personally love villains who mess with the psyche over physically hurting them, so the plans I have for him. ^.^**

** I've expressed it before and I'll express it again, I'm seriously afraid of writing them out of character. Hopefully you all approve!**

**Amy47101 signing off! ^.^**


	7. Chapter 7

o.0.o.0.o

_Chapter Seven_

Viridi never much thought of herself as a religious person.

Heck, any 'religion' that there was was lost during the Great War. When it came to any sort of God, the world-wide belief, essentially, was that legendaries were 'gods' and they deserve utmost respect. Viridi herself never really considered the legends to be either 'good' or 'evil', they just had assigned roles that they had to fulfill.

That being said, it didn't mean that people didn't fear Giritina or Darkrai, some of the scarier of the legends.

Anyways, she sat in the corner of her tiny cell, if that's what she should call it. It was literally a hole, the hole covered with an iron slab that she couldn't reach. Every time someone moved overhead, dirt crumbled down.

She was literally buried alive.

She curled into a ball, praying to every god she could think of, hoping she'd just get exiled and she could run to the nearest town and take refuge. Heck, she was practically living on her own in the forest for the most part. Maybe if she just complied...

Oh, Arceus, who was she kidding?

Even she, a young woman who kept a decently optimistic attitude for the most part, knew that her situation was anything but good. There was no way around it, really. She was done for. This little town was typist enough as it is, consisting of only fire types. But with the sudden murders of three of their own and a single grass type in the village? There wouldn't have been a better target. It would be like hitting two sorrows with a single stone, get rid of the murderer and the outsider. And if they were wrong? Well, at least the annoying grass type wasn't around to bother them anymore.

Her bare toes curled around the soft earth under her. She suddenly remembered, a dry laugh echoing in the back of her head, how that always comforted her even as a small Eevee sorrow, even when she swore she would evolve into a flareon, whenever she was sad or distressed, the earth under her feet was always there to comfort her.

"I'm going to die today." she muttered. "I'm going to die today."

There wasn't any other way around it. She was going to executed for crimes she hadn't committed, eliminated because she evolved into a leafeon before she could get her hands on a fire stone. There was only one way these people executed 'criminals', and it was their favorite, old fashioned way.

Burning at the stake.

Again, her toes curled into the earth. That would certainly be a painful death for a leafeon, let alone any grass type.

She let out a sharp cry and something poked at her foot. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to make it's presence known.

"Ow..." she whined slightly, wallowing in a moment of self pity before she began to push the dirt around in an attempt to find what poked her. After mere seconds of moving the dirt aside, she found the offending piece of metal.

A thin strip of some sort of metal, possibly a piece of supplies when digging out the prison. Pretty useless in a room where the only escape was high above her head and covered by a slab of metal.

She paused as her ears twitched upon hearing something.

Someone was coming.

o.0.o.0.o

"You're poking me."

_3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 58209 74944 59230 78164 06286 20899 86280 34825 34211 70679 82148 08651 32823..._

"You're doing it again!"

_...06647 09384 46095 50582 23172 53594 08128 48111 74502 84102 70193 85211 05559 64462 29489 54930 38196 44288 10975 66593 34461 28475 64823 37867..._

"Stop poking me!"

_...83165 27120 19091 45648 56692 34603 48610 45432 66482 13393 60726 02491 41273 72458 70066 06315 58817 48815 20920 96282 92540 91715 36436 78925 90360 01133 05305..._

"Kaze-!"

"So help me if you say one word I'll strangle you." Kaze hissed at the smaller girl, giving up on trying to distract himself by reciting pi in his head. Saffron huffed, squirming slightly. "Stop moving!"

"Not until you stop poking me!"

"For Arceus's sake, I'm not poking you!" Kaze snapped. Saffron fell silent again, though continued to wriggle about, as if becoming hyperactive due to the sheer idea of being stuck in the closet any longer.

Kaze didn't exactly blame her, as his wings were so stiff that they were nearly numb. He was literally having trouble feeling them, and whenever his wings got cramped or stiff, he got irritable. Add this on to being stuck in small quarters with a stupid girl, he knew he was going to go insane.

"You're poking me again!"

"I am-" Kaze cut himself short as he felt something poking him in the back. "Very mature, Saffron."

"What?"

"Do you think it's funny to get back at me by poking me?"

"I'm not poking you!"

"There's the pot calling the kettle black." Kaze murmured, shifting as something poked him in the back again.

"Don't move! It's hard enough to breathe what with your huge hugeness freaking suffocating me!" Saffron snapped.

"Well, it's not my fault Viridi decided to shove us in a three by four closet!" Kaze hissed back. A heavy pause at the mention of the leafeon sorrow.

"You're seriously telling me you can't break the door down?"

"In this cramped space? No. I'll end up hurting myself or you."

"And the door won't open?"

"Something got knocked in front of it."

Saffron let out a small curse.

Something poked him in the back again.

Suddenly, a male voice echoed throughout the room.

"Serena?"

A pause.

"I knew I shouldn't have trusted her."

His voice switched to a falsetto.

"Let me try navigating the paths. I've been practicing and studying them! It's probably so easy to get to the border!"

A scoff.

"I'll bet she did this on purpose. Damned girl."

A sigh.

"Well, not to self, Jaxximus. Don't take a mission with your stalker."

Both jolted at the sound of the voice so close, neither really caring that a strange and seemingly random male was walking around Viridi's home. Someone could get them out of this closet!

"Hey!" Saffron yelled, banging on the door with her fist. "Hey! Mister! We've been stuck in this closet and- Oh my Mew, _stop poking me Kaze!"_

"I'm not poking you!" Kaze roared, finally snapping from the close confinement. "I swear to whatever pokémon god you worship, if you don't get me out of this closet in the next three seconds, I'm going to shove this girls hat down your throat!"

Suddenly, both were sucked into a void of darkness. Saffron whooped at being able to move again, and looked about ready to make a beeline, uncaring that they were sitting in the middle of a _void of darkness, _when they were suddenly sucked back out of it, into the room outside the closet. All of the shelves previously there had knocked over, a couple, indeed, landing in front of the door to the closet.

A low giggling echoed throughout the room, catching Kaze and Saffron's attention.

"Found me, Jax~!" a mismagius maybe a year older than Saffron giggled, hanging onto the arm of a drifblim sorrow. The drifblim, Jax, scowled, shaking his arm free of her.

"How long were you pestering them for, Serena?" he asked, turning to the mismagius.

"Mmm, maybe an hour or so." she grinned. "It was funny to see them blame each other."

"What are you doing here?" demanded Kaze. "This is someone's home."

"Someone got robbed then." Serena responded. "This entire place got ransacked."

"Wonderful." Saffron muttered. "They go and arrest our friend with no evidence and then they go and steal her stuff."

"_Your _friend." Kaze elaborated, turning back to Jax and Serena. "I got dragged into this on complete accident."

"What happened?" Serena asked, though seemed more curious than concerned. Saffron seemed oblivious, as she began spouting off information.

"Hold on, Saffron." Kaze said, holding up a hand. "How do we know you're not an enemy?"

"They certainly look the part..." Saffron trailed off after a moment of deliberation.

"We could say the same to you, staraptor." Jax suddenly said, having since falling silent and allowing his companion to do the talking.

"We're from Three Spirit." Saffron said, waving towards Kaze and showing her guildmark to prove her point. Kaze lifted his left hand, revealing his own guildmark on the side of his hand.

"Specters of the Forgotten." Serena grinned, brushing her skirt aside to show her own guildmark on her thigh, Jax simply cocking his head to make his mark on his neck more visible. "I'm Serena, and this is Jax." she narrowed her eyes at Saffron, clinging to Jax's arm again. "He's _off limits, _country bumpkin."

Jax rolled his eyes and shook his arm free of her grasp again.

"We're not in a relationship outside of guildmates." he clarified.

"Yet." Serena giggled darkly.

"So why are you here?" Saffron asked, a little unsettled by Serena's comments. Kaze chose, like Jax, to fade into the background, though was prepared to take charge. Serena simply shrugged, so Jax answered.

"Because she wanted to try guiding the paths and we ended up here." Jax said, glaring at her.

"I didn't know where I was going!" Serena defended, though her smile said otherwise.

"Liar." all three of them said at once. Serena continued to grin.

"Maybe you could help us!" Saffron suggested. "The woman who lives here, Viridi Rosewood, was wrongfully arrested!"

"Do you have proof of this?" Jax asked, cocking his head. "Does she have an alibi for whatever crime she committed?"

"That's simple," Saffron grinned, bringing her thumb to her chest. "I'm her alibi."

o.0.o.0.o

"You feeling okay, Faye?" Kai asked, cocking his head as the pink-haired girl shakily clutched his shoulder, trying to keep her balance.

"I'm just not used to flying." Faye responded, smiling gently. "Arceus, I can feel my hand shaking."

Kai's look softened.

"Heh, it's probably scary the first time, huh?"

"Yeah." Faye nodded, moving her hand from his shoulder and standing up straight. "Where are we?"

"Akkes Town in western territory." Kai said, glancing around at the dirt roads and little wooden shacks. "Pretty simplistic and old-fashioned town, which is why it's surprising they requested help."

"They don't usually?"

"It's more like a do it yourself and if you don't get it, keep trying until you get it done sort of town." Kai explained. "They don't like outside help. Very isolate community."

"Sounds cute." Faye commented.

"Yeah," Kai smiled. "Now lets see... I'm pretty sure Saffron was in the area..." Kai mused, then slowly trailed off, suddenly becoming alert. Faye cocked her head.

"Kai? What's going on?" she asked.

"The townsfolk... They're surrounding us." Kai muttered, glancing at sorrows, mostly fire-types, clad in oranges and reds and yellows, all of them glaring venomously at them.

"Should I be worried?" she asked.

"Nah, maybe this is some sort of meeting or something." Kai said, walking up to the townsfolk. "Hey. We're Kai and that's Faye." he gestured towards her. "We're from the Three Spirit Guild. You asked us for help in capturing a murderer?"

"Your help is no longer needed." one of them said. "We've captured the killer."

"Really?" Faye asked.

"Yes." the same sorrow said, fists suddenly bursting into flames. "Now get out of here."

"Whoa, whoa, you sent a request to _us_, remember?" Kai said moving in front of the ready to attack sorrow. "What's with the sudden change of heart?"

"It took you to long to get here! We deal with our problems on our own, thank you very much!" someone else shouted.

"Maybe we should leave." Faye murmured, floundering slightly as she tried to grip her shoulder. "They are't exactly welcoming us."

"But something's off." Kai said, turning around to look at her. "I think they're hiding something..."

"Kai..."

Suddenly, something tapped on his shoulder. Kai turned around, glancing at the sorrow who tapped him on the shoulder, only to feel something smash into the side of his head, skull rattling about before he collapsed to the ground, Faye letting out a startled scream.

o.0.o.0.o

El stared out the window of the room that Giselle had leant out to her.

There was no doubt about what she saw two days ago. It was plaguing her thoughts, pushing to the front of her mind. At first she tried to push the thoughts away, get it out of her mind. It would go for a while as she would begin singing random songs to herself, only to pop back when she remembered a particular song he liked.

Diaki Genjuu was alive.

All in all, she wasn't sure if she should have been relieved that he had somehow managed to survive or horrified to find out he was in a dark guild. The surprises seemed to keep popping up that day. He acted like Diaki. He looked like Diaki. He wielded his weapon like Diaki and he held his stance like Diaki. Hell, he even responded to the name Diaki.

But it couldn't have been Diaki. Diaki wouldn't have stabbed her, or any girl, for the matter, like that. For guys, it was fair game for him. But with girls, ever since his sister...

"E-Elysia?"

"It's El." El snapped back, not even caring who was at the door.

"I-I'm sorry." El sighed as Giselle came up next to her. "Are you okay?"

"Physically, I'm fine." El said, shooting the shy girl a smile. "Your healing did the trick. What's bothering me is the person who did this to me."

"Was he an old friend?"

"He was." El admitted. "We... have a past."

Giselle twiddled her thumbs.

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No." El immediately snapped, crossing her arms. Just seeing him again was enough to rile up some old memories that she didn't want to remember. Talking about it was the last thing she wanted to do.

Giselle flinched, like a little girl who got scolded by her mother, and El suddenly felt guilty.

"U-Um," she pushed some of her hair over her shoulders.

"It was just strange," El clarified. "He was standing there, and he was acting like him, but... it wasn't him." El sighed, glancing at her. "He was different, that's all. The way he acted... it bothered me."

Giselle was quiet for a moment.

"I'm sure if you have faith in him," she said quietly. "Then maybe he's not all bad."

"Giselle," El turned, staring at Giselle and waving a hand over his wound. "He did this to me. He was leading the group of sorrows that poisoned you and your village." Giselle was quiet for a moment.

"Y-You might find this a bit silly," Giselle said, pressing her forefingers together. "But I think that, well, we were all kids once, right? Kind and innocent and tolerant and pure of any and all darkness." she glanced out the window. "I think that, no matter what, if you had that once, you can find it again." she moved her gaze back to El. "You just have to keep searching for it. You have to keep reaching out. And if they slap your hand away," her eyes went distant, as if she was no longer referring to El and her situation anymore. "Then you reach out again. And keep reaching out until they accept your help."

El snickered, tugging Giselle's tiara over her eyes. She let out a small yelp, struggling to push it back to its proper place.

"You're not talking about me and my person anymore, are you? Who are you referencing, Miss Espeon?"

"N-No one!" Giselle squeaked, pushing the tiara back. "Just some honest advice from one team member to another!"

"Wait, team member?" El asked. "What happened while I was out?"

"Well, most of the boys went into town with Launa-"

"Launa?"

"The milotic." Giselle clarified. "They fed the berries to most of the villagers and they're getting better. Zap, a Pachirisu information broker that Moon is friends with, went to search after the dark guild members. He plans to get in touch with us if he finds anything out."

She added that last part on quickly, giving El a little relief. She'd like to keep track on Diaki if she could.

"Graves sent a warning out to guild members in the western territory's Akkes Town. There's a girl there who was accused of murder and is actually innocent, so he wanted to get the word across before they injured her in a fight or something. After that, the Emblem Brothers went back to the guild. Launa is still in town with the rest of our team members helping the villagers and Koli is helping Moon bury the elder."

"And all this happened in a day?"

Giselle nodded. El let out a low whistle.

"I'm not surprised, but I'm a little pissed the Emblem Brothers ditched us early."

Giselle shrugged.

"It's not like we could really stop them. They did their job and we have nothing else to do here."

"They could've at least helped with the Elders burial." El scoffed. "Whatever. Fina will tear them a new one once we get back to the guild." a pause. "Speaking of the guild, what's this I'm hearing about you being our teammate now?"

"We." Giselle elaborated. "Including Koli."

"Hot damn." El muttered, sitting down. "With your healing and her, um..."

"Viciousness?" Giselle offered. El snapped her fingers and winked.

"Yeah. Viciousness. Anyways, I'm thinking with your added help, maybe Fina will consider letting us take more dangerous missions."

"B-But not to dangerous!" Giselle warned.

"But the more dangerous means the more money we can bag!" El grinned. "But wow, guild life so soon? I know Asher's infatuated with Koli, but I didn't think the feeling was mutual!"

"It's not." Giselle giggled. "She's only doing this because I asked her too."

o.0.o.0.o

Kai felt his head pound as he slowly regained consciousness.

"How are you feeling, Kai?" a unknown voice asked. Kai slowly turned his head and saw another girl sitting there, blond hair contrasting greatly with the darkness around her.

"Outside of the pounding headache, peachy." Kai grinned, not sitting up yet. "So who are you and how do you know my name?"

"I'm Viridi, and your friend told me." she pointed to the other end of the dirt cave. Kai didn't bother to move his head, figuring she was talking about Faye. Honestly, he had expected her to run off after he got walloped in the head. Turns out she stayed.

"Shit." he cursed, putting a hand to the huge goose egg on his head, sitting up. Viridi was the name of the murderer in this town, right? There was no way he could fight her off in the cramped space without hitting Faye. "You-"

"Were accused of murder? Yeah, I know." Viridi averted her gaze. "I didn't do it. You don't have to believe me, but I didn't kill anyone."

Kai wasn't about to trust a maybe murderer, so he didn't respond to that. He felt his head throb again, letting out a groan.

"What did they hit me with?"

"A mallet."

He jolted at the voice, and sat up, blinking at the room spinning, though thankful it was rather dark. He was pretty sure the light wouldn't soothe his pounding headache. He blinked, barely seeing Faye's outline against the far wall, huddled in a little ball.

"Faye?"

She smiled weakly at him, as if forcing the smile on her face to try to lighten the mood.

"Hey," he cocked his head, concerned. "What's wrong?"

"I couldn't fight them off." she muttered, placing her head back into her knees. Taking it as a sign that she didn't want to be bothered, Kai turned to Viridi, though kept himself ready for a fight if she tried anything.

"Do you live here, in Akkes? If so, is hitting the people you hire upside the head with mallets and throwing them in a dirty, dark, confined space with a maybe murderer how you usually greet them?"

"With open arms." Viridi joked, though the joke did little to lift her mood. "And I'm not a murderer. I told you, I didn't kill anyone." she paused. "I'm sorry... this town has always been a bit typist, particularly towards types weaker than fire types."

"Are they always this hostile towards outsiders?"

Kai could barely make out her shrugging in the darkness. Kai stood, feeling around the walls, trying to find a door he could maybe blow off the hinges and get them free. Feeling nothing but dirt and the occasional piece of rock, he turned to Viridi.

"What is this?"

"Their prison." Viridi said. She stood as well, pointing above her. "There's an iron slab covering the hole.

"Are we-"

"Don't say it." Faye squeaked from the corner. "Do. Not. Say. It." As if to reassure herself, she curled into a tighter ball, pressing her ears to her head. Kai shot her a worried glance.

"Your girlfriend going to be okay?" Viridi asked.

"She's not my girlfriend," Kai clarified. "And I'm not sure. Maybe she's-" he let out a startled cry as he suddenly felt extra weight on his back. "Hey, what're you-?!"

"I'm gonna see if I can get us out of here." Viridi said casually, climbing up onto his back and standing on his shoulders. Kai grunted, grabbing her ankles to keep her from falling, listening as she began to punch the iron manhole covering the hole. No matter how much she pushed and shoved at it, it barely seemed to move. Kai had a sickening feeling that they may have covered it with dirt, but he wasn't going to say anything so not the upset Faye further.

"The walls are closing in...!" Faye muttered loudly. Kai cast her a worried glance.

"Can you hurry?" he asked Viridi

"It's not moving." Viridi muttered, annoyed. Suddenly, some dirt crumbled a bit, and the iron plate shifted upwards. "Waaaaaaait...!" She let out a cry of victory as the plate moved, light flooding down. "Yes!"

Suddenly, though, two pairs of rough hands grabbed Viridi by her arms and yanked her out of the hole. Kai let out a startled cry at the sudden loss of her weight on his shoulders, and it was suddenly very apparent why it moved so easily. Someone had moved it to grab their prisoner.

"Hey, wait-!" Kai exclaimed as the iron plate fell over the hole again, blocking out his source of light, brief as it was. Faye let out a whimper as Kai strained his ears, trying to listen for movement. There was some shuffling, Viridi protesting whatever was to come, then silence.

The dead silence was a comforting noise, however, compared what came next.

Something was hitting the iron plate, something that sounded like dirt and gravel. It skittered across the surface in a rhythmic pattern. Faye let out a piercing wail, and Kai knew she recognized what was going on too.

They were getting buried alive.

o.0.o.0.o

A rather young, roughly fifteen or so, gourgiest sorrow sat on the rooftop of one of the buildings, casually moving her fingers about, watching with great amusement as her puppets below prepared a stake and wood for the leafeons execution.

She was wearing a gray vest with a sleeveless collared white shirt and a black tie. Her shorts were an even darker shade of gray with a yellow face that looked strangely like a jack-o-lanterns. Gray tights covered the rest of her legs while sleek dark gray ankle boots covered her feet. Her long pink hair seemed to float around her, two parts looking strangely like hands, while a brown streak seemed to stick up like a stem on her head. Most of her hair covered the left side of her face, giving her amber orange eyes a strange air of mystery.

Monica knew that she would become famous for this. She knew they'd _have _to let her join a guild after this great feat. She giggled at the mere thought of it. Single-handedly solving three murders and capturing the culprit? Sure, _she_ committed the murders and she _might _have essentially turned the villagers of the town into mindless puppets, but it would have essentially come to this, right? Typist as they were, they would have eventually accused the leafeon of the murders and they would have probably exiled her. Hell, they already sent a request for guildmembers to arrest her. She just gave them a little bit of a... push.

And so what if a sylveon and a flygon got in the way? She could see her puppets burying them alive in that little makeshift prison. And if anyone else tried to fight, she'd have the villagers bludgeon them with a hammer or something. And the staraptor that flew overhead? She killed him like she had killed the others, quickly and simply, a single strong giga drain.

She was home free! She'd be a part of a guild in no time! No time flat!

She giggled darkly as she watched the villagers drag the leafeon to the post, kicking and screaming.

"Time to burn~." she hummed, casually bringing up her hands, orange hairs barely visible on her fingers, controlling her little villager puppets. "Don't worry, though. You won't be missed."

o.0.o.0.o

Kaze glared at his guild badge after listening the the message that one of his guildmembers, Graves, had just sent through.

"Real good timing, arrogant jerk." Saffron muttered as they bolted through the town.

"I'm picking up the signal of another Three Spirit member." Serena said, glancing at her own guild badge.

"That must be Kai." Jax said. "He took the mission here. Is he moving?"

Serena didn't answer, as she was to busy cursing her supposed 'love rival', Faye.

"He's not." Kaze answered. "He's staying in the same area." A worried look passed over Jax's face.

"He had a blind girl with him when they left." Jax explained in a worried tone, glancing at his own badge to get a location. "Is she still with him...?"

"Who cares?" Serena blurted, eyes flashing menacingly. Jax shot her a venomous glare worthy of a serviper sorrow. She grit her teeth, shading her eyes and taking a step back. A small moment of silence, and then she snapped her head up with her grin once again plastered on her face.

As if on cue, their guildbadges began flashing furiously, indicating that a nearby light guild member was in serious peril.

"Okay, change of plans." Kaze said, stopping and immediately taking charge. "We need to send someone to get Kai and maybe this Faye character."

"I'll go." Jax immediately volunteered. Serena shot him a glance, anger flashing in her eyes.

"Then I'm going as well." she ground out with a forced smile.

"Remember the objective is to _save _them." Saffron reminded, eyeing Serena warily. The breloom didn't get a response, though, as Serena was already following after Jax, the drifblem afloat by his umbrella. "What are we going to do?" Saffron asked, a little calmer now that Serena was gone.

A shrill shriek echoed through the air. Both whipped around, and barely saw a pillar of smoke filtering overhead.

"Holy crap, they actually are burning her at the stake!" Saffron shrieked hysterically. "She didn't do anything! It wasn't her because she was always with m-" her hysteric blabbering was cut off as her head snapped to the side, a stinging sensation on her cheek. She blinked in shock for a moment, slowly turning her gaze back to Kaze. He was glaring furiously at her.

"Do you honestly think," he spat at her. "That crying and screaming is going to fix anything? You're a member of a guild. Your friend is dying and you have people to represent. Are you going to represent Three Spirit by blubbering and panicking like a child?"

Saffron felt her lip quiver for a moment as she bowed her head.

"Apparently so. Guild life isn't some walk in the part, girl. It's people like you who make us weak." Kaze callously turned away. "Grow up. I'm going to go save _your _friend." he glanced over his shoulder, red eye flashing dangerously. "Come find me when you do."

And like that, he flew off.

Saffron felt her tears dribble down her cheeks, then she let out a roar of anger.

"I know I'm not as strong as you and I know this is my first big crisis outside of southeastern territory, but you don't have to be such a _JERK _about it!" she screamed after him. He didn't even seem to flinch. He just kept on flying. Her hand gently went across her cheek, the skin still warm from Kaze's slap. She had heard that he was one of the stricter members of the guild, but what with him never actually coming to the guild and talking to people, she just assumed it was a rumor as stupid as Slade sending his opponents to the Distortion World during the S-Class tournament.

Turns out she was wrong on Kaze's account.

"Dammit." Saffron sniffled, scowling in to the ground as she tried to compose herself. She wanted to argue that her reaction was perfectly logical, though she knew deep, deep down that he as right. She couldn't be panicking right now. The guild mark on her leg proved that she had to be a guiding light, a beacon of hope. No matter what the age, even her own young age of fifteen, she had to be able to shape up or get shipped out. She joined the guild to help people, and here was her friend being executed by villagers for crimes she didn't commit, and the best thing she could do was sit here and panic?

"No way." Saffron shook her head, building up her resolve again. "I've never backed down from a challenge before and this is no different from the missions back home. Someone's doing something wrong and it's up to us to help."

Bouncing back quickly, she bolted down the street after Kaze.

She wasn't giving up just yet!

o.0.o.0.o

**So I was thinking of maybe making this chapter longer, but then I realized that the next chapter, which was going to be combined with this, was gonna be crazy long and I just didn't feel like typing that all out.**

**So somehow Serena convinced Jax to let her navigate the paths and the ended up with Kaze and Saffron. And for some reason, I have an odd, odd feeling that Serena will end up being a yandere-like character.**

**Kai tries to hide his worries to keep Faye from going into full-out panic-attack mode. And Faye is _EXTREMELY _claustrophobic. I figured that if I couldn't see and i could only use my sense of hearing and sense of touch to get around, I'd freak out too. All she could hear was two near perfect strangers around her and all she could feel was narrow dirt walls. Pile that on with hearing the dirt falling on top of your only means of escape and it's a miracle that Faye hasn't passed out yet.**

**I don't know if Saffron was out of character or not, but I felt as if it would be a good idea to get different perspectives from two very different characters: young and immature Saffron and Kaze, five years her senior, mature and strong.**

**I kind of changed Kaze's personality a bit from the original. Originally, he was "I'm-so-serious-I-don't-give-a-fuck-attitude" but now I decided I wanted him to be more prideful. He thinks along the lines of 'to build something up, you've got to knock them down'. I kind of imagined him being, personality wise, a mix of Erza Scarlet from _Fairy Tail_ and Sesshomaru from_ Inuysaha_. Yeah, I don't know either, but roll with me! He's proud of his guild, dammit!**

**Yeah, enough authors ranting. Oh! And Monica is a minor villain character I created in the last story. I don't know if I want to use her again. What do you think? Should Monica make a reappearance?**

**Amy47101 signing off! ^.^**


	8. Ch 8 The Zap(and Serena) Files, Part 1

**A/N: Chapter seven has been posted. Please go back to the last chapter if you want to read it.**

o.0.o.0.o

_Chapter Eight_

**_The Secret Files of Zap_**

_All characters have useful information, and all useful information is worth something.  
__Entry made on XX/XX/XXX_

(All information found out was found out purely by coincidence... And a little help from outside sources.)

Anything in normal text was written by me. Pay no mind to anything in **_bold italics.  
_**_Anything in _**_bold italics _**_are edits made by a certain mismagius sorrow._

**_Everyone is a rival for Jax!_**

Serena, stop reading my notes!

o.0.o.0.o

_Light Guild Subjects_

_Three Spirit Guild_

Subject: _Cove Dewlight  
_Age: sixteen  
Sorrow: Vaporeon  
Profile: A shy and confused sorrow who looks at the world around her with timid confusion. She seems to be hiding something... **_Future blackmail material?_**

Subject: _Fina Everwood  
_Age: eighteen  
Sorrow: Flareon  
Profile: A passionate young woman who seems to loves dancing. **_Though she claims to not want anything to do with a relationship, her belly-dancer like outfits say otherwise. Jax wouldn't want anything to do with someone like her!_**

Subject: _Elysia Briar  
_Age: nineteen  
Sorrow: Jolteon  
Profile: Going by the name El, she is a fun-loving young woman who has a need for speed and music. She has a very rash personality, and enjoys walking along the edge. **_She better not walk to close, or someone might be liable to push her off!_**

Subject: _Slade Indigo  
_Age: Eighteen  
Sorrow: Absol  
Profile: A successful young man who is famous for his S-class status and notorious for his bartering skills. No one would dare to cheat him out of a coin.

Subject: _Saffron Florencio  
_Age: fifteen  
Sorrow: Breeloom  
Profile: A kind girl **_(Correction: country bumpkin)_** with a knack for helping her elderly grandma and baking. **_She's to young for Jax and she looks like a boy! Jax wouldn't want someone like her at all! I saw her looking at him... I won't let her get her dirty little paws on him..._**

Subject: _Graves Hallowell  
_Age: Twenty  
Sorrow: Dusknoir  
Profile: Could be considered perfect at everything if not for his crappy attitude.

Subject: _Coren Ymir  
_Age: nineteen  
Sorrow: Luxray  
Profile: A stupid prick who flirts with everything in a skirt. Seriously, I could probably put a skirt on a cake and he'd flirt with it.

Subject: _Asher Breeze  
_Age: eighteen  
Sorrow: Wigglytuff  
Profile: He's like a child stuck in a mans body. He reminds me of cotton candy; weird and sickeningly sweet.

Subject: _Clamor Admon  
_Age: eighteen  
Sorrow: Loudred  
Profile: True to his name, he's clamorous.

Subject: _Giselle Crosswire  
_Age: seventeen  
Sorrow: Espeon  
Profile: Twin of Koli Crosswire and cripplingly shy. Known for her small stutter. **_I've got to keep an eye on her. If Jax is into shy girls(ex. Faye) then I should figure out ways to eliminate her as a threat. If I can get past her twin, that is._**

Subject: _Koli Crosswire  
_Age: seventeen  
Sorrow: Umbreon  
Profile: Twin of Giselle Crosswire and extremely dangerous. She's said to threaten anyone who gets to close to her sister and no man's ever gotten close enough to either of them without loosing a finger. **_Maybe this will scare Jax off of Giselle..._**

Subject: _Kai Terran  
_Age: seventeen  
Sorrow: Flygon  
Profile: Essentially an idiot abroad. **_Poor bastard can't find his way around unless he's flying, and he's always asking my Jax for money! I'll show him if he doesn't pay him back!_**

Subject: _Kaze Delphin  
_Age: twenty  
Sorrow: Staraptor  
Profile: A serious man who likes to glare. Nothing gets in the way of his work. **_Maybe I'll push someone in the way of his work and get rid of a rival that way._**

_Mermaidian Song_

Subject: _Launa  
_Age: fifteen  
Sorrow: Milotic  
Profile: A spontaneous individual that will go out of her way to help other people. **_Milotic are said to be some of the most beautiful sorrows in existence, but I personally think she's plain! To plain for Jax!_**

_Amazee_

Subject: _Moon Kiyoko  
_Age: sixteen  
Sorrow: Ninetails  
Profile: A kind girl who is fiercely loyal to her friends and guild. She's a friend of mine. **_I don't think I have much to worry about, as Amazee is always fighting with the Warlord Crusaders._**

_Specters of the Forgotten_

Subject: _Jaxximus Hollowgale  
_Age: Seventeen  
Sorrow: drifblim  
Profile: A seemingly lonely sorrow who goes by Jax and doesn't make friends easily. Incredibly loyal, maybe to a fault. A decent navigator of the Paths. _-A very long, long paragraph of text was crossed out. Most of the words are written in a girls handwriting, and babble on and on about how amazing Jax is.-_

Subject: _Serena Magia_  
Age: sixteen  
Sorrow: mismagius  
Profile: A seemingly scary sorrow who seems mean but doesn't do so intentionally. She claims that her sense of humor is just 'twisted'. Her perpetual smile and essentially stalking people she really, really likes does not help her case.

_Dark Guilds_

Subject: _Amelia Heartman  
_Age: fifteen  
Sorrow: Emolga  
Profile: Not nearly as innocent as her looks suggest. Signature line: _Pain is hilarious!_ **_If she so much as lays a finger on Jax, I'll show her just how hilarious I can be!_**

Subject: _Seth Blodeuwedd  
_Age: twenty-three  
Sorrow: Zoroark  
Profile: Not much is known about him. He's so elusive! **_I hope he doesn't disguise himself as me and try to trick my dear Jaxximus!_**

Subject: _Ri Battae  
_Age: seventeen  
Sorrow: Crobat  
Profile: Is trying to concoct the 'perfect poison'. **_Maybe I can get him to make me a love potion?_**

Subject: _Elizabelle Xero  
_Age: eighteen  
Sorrow: Gothitelle  
Profile: Robotic and doll-like, in a sense. She creeps even me out. **_... Even a creepy doll like sorrow is a rival..._**

_(Currently) Unaffiliated Forces_

Subject: Zap(AKA, Daniel)  
Age: eighteen  
Sorrow: Pachirisu  
Profile: **_Barely speaks and is extremely quiet. Apparently very sneaky and very good at gathering information. I need to get his number so I can get more info on these subjects. _**No.

Subject: _Viridi Rosewood  
_Age: eighteen  
Sorrow: Leafeon  
Profile: A seemingly energetic girl who looks forward to the future. Noted that while energetic and happy, she is very sneaky and sly when she wants to be. **_I don't care how sneaky she is, she better not try anything with Jax._**

Subject: _Faye Eberhart  
_Age: sixteen  
Sorrow: Sylveon  
Profile:

...

...

...

-_The text has been furiously scribbled out and replaced with the following words-_

**_LOVE. RIVAL. WILL. BE._ _ELIMINATED_.**

o.0.o.0.o

**So this is a fun little thing that was inspired by KiwiWizards _Marie's Blackmail Files, _AKA, chapter four of _Pokésouls Academy._**

**I created it mainly to keep track of who's been introduced. As I said before, there were a lot of OCs!**

**This is technically 'chapter eight' but chapter seven was posted before this. The list will be updated as other chapters whenever new characters are introduced. **

**Don't ask how Zap and Serena came to be 'partners' on this project. At first it was going to be, like, a stalkers files written by Serena, but then I was like "Wouldn't it make more sense for Zap to know all this info since he's an information broker?". But at that point, I already had half of Serena's dialogue for this written up.**

**Then I decided to slap the two together. Again, don't ask how Serena got to edit Zap's notes. She has her ways. And please note that anything Serena thinks is not a representation of what I think or Serena's creator thinks. This is a girl in love *coughobssessedcough* with a man.**

**Amy47101 signing off! ^.^**


	9. Chapter 9

o.0.o.0.o

_Chapter Nine_

Glaceon ears twitched as ice colored skirts billowed in the breeze. A young lady with the refinement of a queen was only seventeen years old, walking as gracefully as possible over the rocky terrain in her navy blue sandals. She was dressed rather traditionally, and from a distance, one could say she was, indeed, some form of royalty due to her kimono and long, loose sleeves. Somehow, her young age made her seem all the more intriguing. Surely this was a princess, if not the daughter of _someone _rich and influential, correct?

But appearances were rather deceiving, weren't they?

As, from a distance, one did not see the slit in her dress, parted right down the middle, the cut beginning at her dark blue obi, causing her skirts to fan out. Her sleeves were slit in a similar fashion, revealing dark blue, skin tight sleeves from her wrists to her upper arms, hidden by the off the shoulder sleeves. Dark straps crossed over her collarbone, and a glanceon tail was still under the skirts. Pale hair fell to the middle of her back, not entirely blue, but not entirely white either. Almost the color of snow, white with that bluish hue. Her bangs were a darker blue, cobalt, maybe, with white bands around the hair that framed her face.

Perhaps she wasn't as traditional after all.

But regardless, each step had a purpose. A meaning. Dirt and gravel crunched under her footsteps as she held a fan to her face, keeping her chin down, hidden behind the fan, and her gaze forward. She kept her sight on two fire type sorrows, each with shovels, staring at her as she paused her stroll.

She stared back.

They barely got a word out before she lowered the fan from her face, extending her hand.

Then the two were, literally, blown away. Caught up in the coldness of the blizzard she summoned. Not to hurt them, really, but rather, to get them out of her way.

She glanced down at the place they were standing, a reasonably sized divot in the dirt, indicating they were either digging a hole, or burying something.

"Hey, you!" she lifted her head, glancing over as a Drifblim sorrow landed in front of her, a less than willing Mismagius by his side. "Where's Faye?"

The girl was muttering things under her breath, something about 'the worst nightmare ever' and 'making Halloween extra creepy'. The glaceon, however, cocked her head in confusion, bringing her fan to her face.

"Faye?" she asked, unsure of who he was referring too. The man blinked, glancing over her attire.

"Are you from around here?" he asked.

"This territory? No." she responded. "I'm from the northwest. I'm in the midst of travelling to southeastern territory, though. I have but recently started my journey to the the southeast. I'm seeking Three Spirit guild. Do you know of it?"

"We know of it." the Drifblem responded. "Why seek such a far guid? There's guilds closer to your territory."

"I'm aware." she responded. "I'm not seeking the guild, so to speak. I'm seeking a _person."_

A moment of silence.

"I'm not going to pick through your life." the Drifblim responded. "But people we know have been buried alive. Will you help us get them out?"

"A favor for a favor I see." the glaceon mused. "Fine, then. I accept."

"Can we know your name, at least?" the mismagius spat. "I'm tired of referring to you as 'the glaceon'."

The glaceon blinked, lowering her fan slightly.

"My name is Qani Wintrig."

o.0.o.0.o

Kai couldn't say he wasn't scared. He was flippin' terrified. He always imagined himself dying in a blaze of heroic glory, falling with his vanquished enemy and being found, his body returned to his home territory and buried, his guildmates mourning the death, but also celebrating the life of a great, if not silly, hero.

But here he sat, in the dark, with a sylveon on the verge of a nervous breakdown, buried alive.

Would anyone find his body? Sure, some people would look. But when would that be? Everyone knew he was a free spirit. People in his guild nicknamed him the Journeyman for a reason, after all. He would disappear with no contact for months at a time, and no one would check their badge and know the wiser.

How many months? Three? Four? By then, he would have long since suffocated, if not died of starvation or dehydration first. Who would die first? Him or Faye? Call him cruel, but he hoped Faye. The amount of fear, sadness, and regret he could feel rolling off the girl was overwhelming. Along with the regret he felt for dragging her into this situation? That was making him feel all the worse.

He couldn't think of anything worse than dying alone. Was he willing to face that fear for Faye? He couldn't be sure.

"I'm a sicko." he muttered under his breath, running a hand down his face.

There was nothing but silence. Horrible silence.

Was it possible for the silence to be the loudest possible thing on earth?

Moments passed.

Minutes.

Hours?

He was going to go mad here. Now he swore to every god above that he heard the gravel moving again. There was suddenly a metallic _clang _echoing through the room. Faye jolted at the sound, jerking her head up. Kai stared at her a moment, sudden realization hitting him,

If she heard it too, that meant it wasn't a weird hallucination, right?

"I seemed to have reached a dead end." a refined voice he hadn't heard before said. He didn't care, simply, began screaming random things to get her to open the hatch.

"Kai! Faye!"

"Jax!" Faye suddenly wailed. The plate shifted, then moved, light flooding the darkness. Kai practically dragged Faye to the hole, boosting her up, watching as she was yanked out of the prison by whomever was above her. Kai flapped his wings, unwilling to wait until he could get pulled out, practically throwing Jax and Faye into the dirt as he burst into the air.

o.0.o.0.o

Kaze was fairly sure he could handle himself among a group of underleveled, untrained fire types. So long as their flames did not reach his wings, he would be able to still use a majority of his attacks. His only problem was the sheer _number _of them. And every time one went down, the sorrow either got up to keep fighting or was replaced by another. In the distance, faintly, he saw smoke, and knew that they had already begun Vidiri's execution.

Knowing the mission was going from a simple rescue mission to a desperate one, Kaze decided to abandon the battle and fly towards the pillar of smoke. The fire types below immediately began sending streams of fire at him, trying to shoot him down with a rain of lava and flames. He winced slightly as the offending embers somehow managed to touch his clothes, putting ugly scorch marks through the clothes and causing miniscule burns across his skin.

Insulting pyros.

He turned back, prepared to unleash his strongest attack simply because they had ruined his nice shirt, only to widen his eyes as the fire's around them suddenly shifted from bright orange and yellow to black and purple, morphing into ugly shapes and horrifying faces.

A dark giggling echoed across the village as the flames morphed into a creepy, flickering image of Serena with jagged teeth and narrow slits for eyes. Kaze narrowed his eyes, spotting the fire sorrows freaking out over the monstrous form of the girl. He felt an odd pulse behind his head, then squeezed his eyes shut, bringing a hand to hand forehead and digging his fingers into his scalp, trying to bring himself back to reality.

Faintly, he recognized the sensation. It was that of illusions. A very powerful illusionist, judging by how much he trouble he was having trying to bring himself back to reality.

A sudden smack on his shoulder caused him to snap out of his concentration. He whipped around, grabbing the offending person's wrist in preparation to break it. He was meeting resistance to this however.

"Whoa, Star." he glared at Kai. Well, assuming it was Kai. Considering there was a Three Spirit guildmark on the arm in which he was still gripping, he could only assume that it was the member, Kai, that they were searching for. He was flapping his wings, a grin on his face as Kaze dropped his arm.

"Don't call me that." Kaze stated immediately. "When did you get out?"

"I got some help." Kaze turned his attention to Jax, who was floating next to them on his umbrella. He pointed downwards, and Kaze saw a glaceon sorrow fighting with a sylveon sorrow, picking off the fire types as they were distracted by the illusion Serena created. "Name, Qani Wintrig. Status, unaffiliated. Current known moves; Dig and possibly Blizzard."

Kaze nodded, liking the Drifblim's attitude. He didn't even have to say what he wanted. Jax just picked up on it and gave it to him, short and sweet. Kaze, unlike most people, was smart enough to look into the context clue and realize that if the glaceon knew Dig, then she probably used said move to dig Kai out.

"The sylveon?" he asked.

"That's Faye." Kai responded. "I'm going down to help her out."

Kaze nodded, allowing the flygon to swoop down to help the two eeveelution sorrows below them. Serena's power continued to pulse in his head. It wasn't as strong as before, since he had realized the trick, but it was annoying, to say the least.

"You're not going to shake it off." Jax stated simply. "Serena's been working on illusions for as long as I've been trying to navigate the paths."

"...You're surprisingly good at reading people." Kaze stated. Jax shrugged.

"Should we aim to kill should they show too much resistance?" Jax asked. Kaze furrowed his brow.

Unnecessary killings were highly frowned upon in Central, even if it was that of serial murders and the darkest dark guild members. But the killing of civilians, whether prompted or not, was one of the biggest mistakes a light guildmember could make. Kaze was sure that, considering their numbers and the villagers, should they happen to kill one, they could probably escape with a month or two of labor due to self-defense. But should they be found guilty, depending on their roles in the fight, they would be sentenced to anything from years of labor to death.

"Refrain from killing them." Kaze responded. "I'm not risking the trial and the punishments that will surely follow. Pass the message."

"Noted." Jax nodded, floating back down the to battle.

Jax was the messenger.

Serena was the distraction.

Kai, Qani, and Faye were the fighters.

Kaze turned, knowing what his now designated role was.

He was to be the rescuer.

o.0.o.0.o

Viridi's last scream ended in that of a fit of coughs. She could feel splinters pressing through her clothes as she desperately tried to get away from the flames. She bowed her head, flames licking at her bare toes as tears streamed down her face.

Smoke started rising into the air, and into Viridi's system, making her cough violently. She had tried holding her breath, in an attempt to stop breathing in the smoke, but to no avail. Her coughing fits grew and she was lacking air. She wasn't sure which was worse, the burning in her lungs from the smork or the burning at her feet from the burns. She knew this wasn't going to be a painless death. Maybe she'd pass out from the smoke inhalation before any real pain could register. At this point, that would be the most merciful thing Arceus could grant her.

A dry laugh escaped her lips, ending in another round of tortured coughs. Death. Why had she never actually thought of death before? Why hadn't she thought of how she was going to die? Simple. She had never thought of death because she viewed it as a pessimistic sense of blackness, haunting the backs of everyone's minds, threatening to dampen the day that should be filled with life. It was like the smoke that filtered around her now. Black. Death was always represented in black, and the smoke was so dark that she couldn't even see the other side. And yet, stubborn sunlight tried to poke through the darkness.

Of course, she thought, it had to be a lovely day on the day of her execution. Sunny, with a gentle breeze. Perfectly ironic for an execution. She'd always imagined days of people dying being rainy days, as that's how it was always showed in books she's read. But then again, it's said for every Sorrow who dies, another one is born in his or her place. If it were to rain every day for every death, the world would surely have flooded. Despite the thought, Viridi had always been the type to dance in the rain, for the fun of it, and now, more than ever, she wished for that rain.

Slowly, she lifted her head, squinting through the smoke. There were guildmembers around, right? Hope couldn't be completely lost, right?

Optimistic. She had to remain optimistic.

Squinting her eyes, she swore she saw a winged figure. Black wings? Had death come to claim her?

… Did death usually swat sorrows aside with their wings like they were bug types? Ah, phooey. Who was she to judge, anyways? She was dying.

… Right?

o.0.o.0.o

Saffron kept seeing glints of orange across the ground.

At first, she was unsure what they were, and simply assumed they were marks in the road or that something was wrong with her eyes. But as the battle continued to rage on around her, they kept getting more and more defined, almost to the point of glowing. Unsure of what was going on, and with the recent assistance of three other sorrows, she figured no one would notice if she slipped away to investigate the oddity.

So she followed the orange strings, finding it curious that, as she continued to get closer to what she assumed was their source, they seemed to twist together into ten large stands, jerking about as if someone was constantly pulling at them.

Her gaze shifting up the glinting material. It travelled up a building. Circling the walls, she failed to see a ladder or any ways to actually get up to the rooftop. So instead, she decided to position herself between a narrow alley, and using her hands and feet, began to shimmy up the walls.

It was a small trick Viridi had taught her, back when she took on the apprenticeship. While Viridi was pretty decent at healing, she wasn't half bad as a thief either. She always said it was something to do with typist shop owners racking up prices and how she couldn't afford supplies and such. While the idea of actually breaking into a place to rob it was unsettling to Saffron, she wasn't going to say that the skills and tricks Viridi had taught didn't come in handy.

With a small grunt, Saffron pulled herself over the roof ledge, flexing her hands and feet from the climb. Viridi said that, with practice, she would get better, but honestly? Scaling brick walls with near bare feet hurt!

Adjusting her hat and pushing her discomfort aside, she stood up, trying to find the orange hairs again, only to catch sight of a whole head of it. On the rooftop was a sorrow she didn't recognize, her profile to her, the strings connected around her fingers. Like a puppeteer, she moved her fingers, controlling whatever was attached on the other end.

Determining her to be the culprit behind whatever was going on, Saffron began powering up a Mach Punch. A surprise attack would be the greatest approach!

With a burst of speed, she ran forward, slamming her fist into the sorrow's face with so much force that smoke actually appeared.

"Haha!" Saffron grinned. "Let's see Kaze call me weak _now!"_

"Teeheehee!" she heard someone giggle. Saffron blinked, taking a step back as the sorrow stepped in front of her, seemingly fine. "That tickled!"

"Wh-What?" Saffron muttered, stepping back. This girl took that Mach Punch like it was no one's business, and she looked no older than herself!

"Fun fact," the girl hummed. "Gourgeist are part ghost type." Saffron blinked, stepping back. That meant that half her moves would be useless against her, right? She got into a fighting stance and waited for her opponent to move.

A moment of silence.

"Aren't you gonna punch me?" she finally asked. "'Cause I'm feeling really dumb standing here like this." The girl blinked, turning her head to her.

"Why?"

"Because you're the bad guy… and I'm the good guy?"

"Are you sure it's not the other way around, dear?" Saffron narrowed her eyes at the sorrow's demeaning tone. "I mean, I'm not the one attacking villagers."

"Who are you?" Saffron finally asked.

"Monica." she responded. She pulled at the strings again. Saffron glanced at them, trying to see what she was controlling. "It's kind of odd you spotted these, but then again, maybe it's because you're a grass type."

"Thanks…?"

"Anytime."

"What are they attached to?"

"The villagers."

"_WHAT?!"_

Monica giggled not tearing her gaze from her strings.

"Wha- Why- How-?! Do you even realize that they're fighting us?! Someone might get killed!"

"So?" Monica responded. "It all ends well for me if I can pull this off."

"What are you trying to _do?" _Saffron stressed.

"Get into a guild." Monica replied casually, as if what she was doing was completely natural. "I know it's weird, not accepting a cute face like me, but I need some reinforcement."

"Reinforcement?" Saffron asked, entirely unsettled by her calm demeanor.

"Imagine what the guildmasters would think should I come saying I solved the mysterious murders in Akkes Town? I'd be viewed as a hero! I'd have to be accepted into a guild, despite what everyone says!" she glanced up beaming at her.

"Who did it, then?"

"Oh, me." Monica shrugged. "But I pinned it on that leafeon, so's all good."

"How is it all good?!" Saffron exclaimed. "That leafeon is my friend!"

"I don't understand why you're freaking out." Monica said, shooting her an irritated look. "Sooner or later, they would have blamed her, even if they had evidence it was someone else. They're so typist that if they so much as saw the leafeon walking on the wrong side of the road, they'd jail her for a day."

"But why go through the trouble? What's the point?" Saffron asked, shaking her head.

"I told you that already, silly!" Monica said. "I wanted to get into a guild! I knew that if I had something like this under my belt, then I wouldn't be forced to take those ridiculous C-class training missions. I could take something I _know _I could handle."

Saffron could feel herself shaking. This girl was obviously a very, very disturbed young lady. She killed three people, all for what? To get into a guild? To get missions higher than a C-class? Did she even know that everyone had to undergo at least one training mission before they took on harder missions, no matter what they had done in the past? She didn't need to do this. There's no reason to it.

Saffron had a feeling that Monica could have probably walked into any guild and gotten in. She was young, obviously determined, well built, and seemed powerful. Depending on the guild's atmosphere, Monica could've joined a guild easily.

So why kill three sorrows? Why go through the trouble of framing Viridi? Why… Why is she forcing them to fight?

"Why are you controlling them?" Saffron asked, glancing at the hairs. Monica shrugged at that.

"Because it's fun to watch you guys dart around their attacks." she grinned. "I know. Aren't I such a smart little sorrow?"

And with that, Saffron rammed her fist, with no attack summoned, into Monica's face. Monica went flying, hissing under the pain of the punch, skidding to a stop a few feet away.

"You don't know anything!" Saffron shouted, pointing an accusing finger at her. "You don't need experience to get into a guild! And having experience won't get you out of training missions! You didn't need to do this at all! It was pointless!"

"You're lying!" Monica accused, sounding more angry than guilty. "If it was so easy to get in, they would've accepted me!"

"They could probably sense that you're a crazy psychopath!" Saffron shot back. "I don't blame them!"

Monica's hair shifted around her shoulders, eyes flashing angrily.

"Damn you…!"

Monica suddenly lunged at her and tackled her. Saffon and Monica spent the next five minutes in a rather childish dispute, screaming insults at each other about the other's appearance or personality or social life, pulling hair and giving noogies.

Neither seemed to notice that Monica still had her puppet strings around her fingers.

o.0.o.0.o

Jax stared wide eyed as the villagers went from fighting each other to doing a rather… strange series of events.

First they began twirling on their toes. This was followed by an abrupt part of the hokey pokey, continued with about six rounds of the macarena. Now they were just waving their hands in the air with varying expressions on their faces.

"Okay." Serena finally huffed, crossing her arms and cutting her illusion off. "What the hell?"

"I'm… not entirely sure myself." Jax said, watching as they began square dancing.

A pause.

"At least it's entertaining to watch." Serena said. "Let's ditch this popsicle stand."

"No!" Jax said. Serena huffed.

"Why?" she gestured to the still square-dancing sorrows. "They're obviously not a threat." her voice dropped to a hiss. "Worried about _Faye _again?"

"This has nothing to do with Faye." Jax glared. "What if they act up and begin attacking again? Plus we still don't know the status of Kaze or Viridi. We're staying."

"...Fine." Serena muttered, shifting her gaze back to the fire type sorrows.

o.0.o.0.o

"Qani, come watch the show!" Qani faintly heard Kai yell. "Oh, Arceus," he howled with laughter. "They're square dancing now!"

Qani cast a glance to Kai and Faye, the latter not holding as much of a jovial attitude as her partner. She was fairly certain that, should Kai be too distracted by the sorrows of the village, Faye would snap him back to reality.

Silently, Qani lowered her gaze to the ground, and waited.

"There." she murmured to herself, hand shooting downwards. In her fingers, she could feel the thinness of a string. Raising to her feet, she began following the string until she hit a wall. Glancing up, her ears twitched at the sounds of fighting overhead. On the roof?

Dropping the thread-like hair, she stepped back, bent on her knees, and jumped. She kicked off the wall, then repeated the action on the parallel wall, landing on the roof. Brushing off her skirts, she glanced over her shoulder, mildly impressed at the feat she had just accomplished.

She turned to the sound of a fight, and saw a orange haired girl holding a girl she faintly recalled being called Saffron in a headlock, relentlessly grinding her knuckles into her head. She watched the two fight rather childishly and mediocrely for a few moments, before growing impatient and stepping forward, forcing the two apart.

"You!" Saffron shouted, pointing at her. "I… don't remember your name."

"Qani." Qani responded simply. She turned her gaze to the gourgeist sorrow. "Who are you?"

"None of your business!" she spat.

"This is Monica and she's behind everything!" Saffron exclaimed, trying to keep the girl pinned. "She killed the villagers! And she framed Viridi! And she's controlling the villagers! And now she's just hurting people for the fun of it!"

"The ends justify the means!" Monica shrieked, flopping about. Qani blinked, then crossed the distance between them.

"How is the controlling the villagers?"

"I'm not sure." Saffron shook her head. "But she's using weird shiny strings."

"You'll never figure it out." Monica said smugly. "I've created a technique so amazing that not even a genius could figure it-"

Qani circled the pair, grabbed a handful of the girls long hair, and summoned a small ice-beam on the tip of her finger. Saffron watched in mild fascination as Qani calmy froze the girls hair at the shoulders, then snapped it off like she was snapping a twig in half.

With ice still clinging to the ends of the long strands, Qani tossed them aside and stood.

"The problem has been solved."

o.0.o.0.o

Kaze was doing everything possible to put out the fire. Every time he got to close, he could practically feel his skin burning. The smoke made his eyes burn, but he had to find a way to put it out.

"Kaze!" he glanced up, and saw Kai with a pail of water, throwing it over the flames with little success.

"What are you doing?" Kaze commanded as Jax and Serena mimicked the actions.

"The fire type sorrows passed out." Faye responded, not daring to come too close to the fire. "They stopped fighting and suddenly… collapsed. I'm not all to sure what happened."

Kaze decided simply to not question it, focusing on the fire that trapped Viridi.

"Step aside." Kaze blinked as Qani stepped forward. Saffron was close behind her, holding a gourgeist in what looked like ice shackles. Qani snapped her fan closed, calmly raised it, then flicked it about. Kaze watched as wind began swirling around the flames.

"Idiot!" he hissed to her. "Blowing oxygen increases the heat of the flames."

Qani was either too focused on her attack or chose to ignore him, as she simply continued the attack, summoning blasts of snow and ice, whipping them around and essentially smothering the fire in a blanket of snow.

Her task done, she opened her fan again.

"Not convenient in battle against a fire type, as it takes to much time." Qani explained. "But it put out the fire."

"Viridi!" Saffron exclaimed, abandoning her task on guarding the gourgeist. She winced at the coldness that touched the bare parts of her feet, but stumbled to her friend.

"Is she alive?" Kaze asked calmly as Kai got to work at untying her from the post. Saffron seemed to flounder for a moment, before finally putting her finger under Viridi's nose and waiting.

"She's breathing!" she shouted. Kaze shot her a glare for her loudness, pressing his fingers against Viridi's neck. Everyone knows that you check the vital signs, including pulse, for signs of life.

"She is, indeed, alive." he said, lifting her from the wood and snow and moving her to more temperate ground. "We're going to split up." he decided. "I need people to stay and do damage control and I need people to come with me to guard Viridi. I'll run the systems from the guild badge." he turned his attention to the gourgeist, whom Serena was currently mocking. "Who's that?"

"The culprit, Monica." Saffron said, shooting her a dirty glare. "She's responsible for everything. The murders, framing Viridi, controlling the villagers… all of it."

"Ugh, you're annoying." Monica responded. "Sooner or later they would have blamed her." she jerked her head to Viridi. "I just gave them a push."

"Admission of guilt confirmed." Kaze muttered, glancing over what he had with him right now. "Jax, stay here and control the masses. You seem like you can handle it." Jax glanced up from studying soot marks on his umbrella, then nodded. "Kai, stay here and assist Jax should anything drastic happen. Contact the peaceholders to get _her," _he jerked his head to Monica. "Out of this town. Faye, I assume you're staying with Kai?" Faye nodded.

"I'm staying too." Serena muttered, moving between Jax and Faye. Kaze wasn't in the mood for dealing with her antics, so he approved it. Serena shot a creepy smile to Faye, almost as if satisfied with creating a gap between her and Jax, only for Faye to return it with an awkward grin. Kaze turned to Saffron.

"Saffron, you're coming with me."

"Really?" she sounded skeptical. Kaze glared.

"I don't want you there as much as you want to come with me, but would you rather stay behind, a grass type, with a bunch of typist fire-types who seem to have a vendetta against grass-types?"

She winced.

"Point taken."

Kaze turned to Qani.

"You too. I'm not risking them going typist on you too."

Qani closed her eyes.

"I will agree on one condition." Qani replied. Kaze raised an eyebrow, then crossed his arms.

"Speak."

"Lead me to Three Spirit Guild. I'm aware that at least three of you are members, as I recognized the mark. But as you are equally aware, it isn't safe to travel alone."

"I'm still not sure why you're so set on going there." Kai said, running a hand through his hair with a confused look. "I mean, yeah, we're a great guild. But you don't seem like the… type that would join Three Spirit."

"I'm not seeking to join." Qani said. "I've stated this before, I'm seeking a person."

"Who?" Saffron asked.

"I believe you know him," Qani said. "As Clamor Admon."

o.0.o.0.o

**So, wow. Serena is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters to write. XD**

**Anyways, I kind of wanted Monica to be depicted as a childish character who was strong when hiding behind others, but weak when confronted head on.**

**So I decided to try to update this once a month. Hope you all enjoyed!**

**Anyways, we are EIGHT REVIEWS from a hundred. Can I get a push from my awesome fans? Pwetty pwease?**

****Amy47101 signing off! ^.^****


	10. Chapter 10

o.0.o.0.o

_Chapter Ten_

Kaze glared at his opponent across from him, waiting for her to crumble under the pressure of his terrifying gaze. The glaceon, however, said nothing, simply stared back at him, refusing to let any panic she might have felt show.

She picked up the bishop and moved it three squares, then sat back.

"Check." she said simply, folding her hands. Kaze pursed his lips for a moment, then decided to get rid of the offending black bishop at the sacrifice of his knight.

"Where did you learn to play chess?" Kaze asked after he made his move. Qani blinked at him.

"The person I work for wanted his children to learn, and I, in turn, learned through watching." she stared at the board thoughtfully. "They never really picked up on it, but I find it to be great fun."

"Hm." Kaze mused. Playing chess had, in fact, not been his idea. When they reached the small hospital for Viridi and the doctors told them to wait, a little old sorrow came up and offered them some games, saying that "Young minds should be stimulated!". Most had been puzzles and such, and he assumed Saffron would take her time to do that and Qani would simply stand around like she had been. All in all, he had ignored the games. How could he concentrate on something so childish when he had missions to be updated, people to contact, and he had to listen to Saffron talk endlessly about how worried she was for her friend?

It was only _after _a chansey sorrow approached them and said Viridi would be fine after some healing and some rest, giving them confirmation to leave in a day or two, that he actually allowed his gaze to flick over the games.

Saffron had picked up a puzzle, deciding to humor herself on one of the coffee tables. Qani shifted through the boxes a bit, then looked up at him with a box.

"Do you know how to play?" she had asked, holding up the chess set.

Qani certainly was an odd young lady, and not simply by the way she dressed and spoke. Then again, he supposed it was wrong to judge people based on how they were dressed, given how most of the residents of Uhssi dressed. Sometimes, he swore he was the only one who looked half normal, and even then, he had dyed red bangs!

Anyways, while Qani acted refined and polite, she has shown evidence of being quite the fighter, and now, seemingly intelligent. Kaze has always regarded himself as a very intelligent person. He didn't need brute strength to beat his enemies, as all he needed was simple intelligence. As long as he was smarter than those around him, he would always have the upper hand. But now, with Qani, he was facing a new issue: A blank-faced, seemingly strong, seemingly intelligent woman, who he couldn't discern between being an enemy or a friend. She was a _far _contrast to the women in his guild, Saffron coming to mind, and that difference was as intriguing as it was annoying.

He's read of sorrows who would worm their way into friendships with guildmembers in an effort to get inside information to sell or whatever reason. Dark guilds, news reporters, whatever it was. That was why he very rarely trusted new recruits. He never knew if he could actually trust them. Usually, he could tell, but Qani was different all together. She specifically stated her reasoning for seeking out Three Spirit was to find Clamor, whom Saffron reminded him as being the loud guy who can't tone it down. He remembered the idiot, always shouting and causing chaos in the guild.

Why a woman of Qani's caliber was seeking him out was beyond his comprehension.

"Are you planning on joining Three Spirit?" Kaze asked. Usually, he didn't talk this much with other people, but Qani was such an anomaly to him that he had to find her motives.

"Perhaps." she mused. Kaze kept his irritation hidden. No matter what question was asked, Qani always answered with these vague answers. It was going from being interesting to being rather annoying. "Kaze," she said, glancing at him.

"What?" he asked.

"You're not going to find out anything that I don't want you to know." she said cryptically, moving her next chess piece. "Checkmate."

o.0.o.0.o

Today, Clamor realized, that Coren has officially figured out the reason why Graves is such an arrogant ass.

"Boys!" the luxray exclaimed, slamming his hand on the table they were sitting at. "I've figured out why Graves is such an arrogant ass!" he sat down smugly, crossing his arms and sitting back. Asher barely batted an eye, to busy admiring Koli with a faraway look on his face as she glanced over the job board.

Koli and Giselle had made it back to Three Spirit after about a week at their hometown. Reassured time and time again that Moon and Zap had everything under control, they finally left, their healed villagers sending them off with the rest of Team Evolution by their side. Oddly enough, the two sisters requested their gray guildmark be split in half, stamped on their hands in a way so that it completed a full mark should they place their hands together. About a week into guild life, and the two have already managed to complete their training mission and signed into Team Evolution.

"It isn't because he was handsome." Coren said, as if it were obvious, snapping the loudred from his revere. "Or powerful. Or how he somehow managed to con everyone into getting whatever he wanted."

"THAT-" Clamor clamped his mouth shut as a jolt of electricity caused his leg to jerk. Swallowing, he spoke in a quieter tone under Coren's intense look and the small sparks the crackled, almost unnoticeably, throughout his hair. "I dunno about you, but I think that's a decent reason to be an arrogant stuck-up prick."

"That's where you are wrong, my friend." Coren grinned. "For you see, it is not because of power or looks. It is because. simply, he lacks a woman in his life." Clamor furrowed his brow.

"I dunno…" he trailed off. "I think Graves is an ass because he's a narcissist, plain and simple."

"Trust me on this one, I know my friends!" Coren insisted. Clamor crossed his arms.

"What's in it for you?"

"_What?" _Coren exclaimed. "Why, Clamor, I'm shocked! You honestly _think _that _I _would take advantage of helping a friend?"

Clamor fixed him with a serious look.

"Ouch." Coren winced. "That's harsh, man."

"Whats in it for you?"

"Clamor-"

"What's in it for you?"

"I'd never-"

"WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU?" Clamor shouted, nearly shattering the eardrums of all within hearing range. They caught a few odd stares, then everyone returned to their work.

"A date." Coren said smugly. "I made a bet with Fina."

"She made a bet with you?" Clamor cocked his head.

"The bet entailed that if I could find Graves a girl who wanted to date him, and the girl enjoyed the date, confessed her love to him, willingly, then she'd go on a date with me."

"And if you loose the bet?"

"I hand over three fourths of our savings."

"YOU _WHAT?!"_

"Volume, Clamor."

"YOU BET OUR SAVINGS! WE NEED THAT TO LIVE, DAMMIT! DO YOU EVEN REALIZE WHAT YOU JUST _DID?! _YOU MADE A BET YOU CAN'T WIN BECAUSE NO GIRL WOULD BE DESPERATE ENOUGH TO-"

"Shh!" Coren hissed, smacking a hand over his mouth. "There _is _a girl who would date Graves!"

"Who?!" Clamor exclaimed as Coren dropped his hand. Coren silently held up his finger near his smirking face, and pointed. Clamor slowly followed his gaze, eyes settling on a certain espeon sorrow. "I don't know, Coren." Clamor said doubtfully. "I'm seeing flaws with this already."

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that Koli nearly stabbed your eye out when you approached Giselle. And how Koli always following her. And how there's no way we can pull her from the team."

"And why is that?"

"One, I'm no good at this romantic stuff. You know that. Second, this guy," he pointed to Asher. "Is an idiot. Graves is to much of a prick, and Fina will roast you if you come within a twenty foot radius." Clamor crossed his arms. "Plus on top of that, I don't like the idea of fooling around with Giselle's emotions. What if something actually happens between her and Graves, and she finds out this was all a bet? Not only will it crush her, but her twin will find out and we're all good as dead. So what's your big bad plan now, hotshot?"

A smirk creeped onto Coren's face as Graves sat back down.

"Hey Graves," Coren said, resting his chin in his hand as he spoke. The dusknoir glanced at him.

"What?"

"Lets make a bet."

"No." Graves immediately answered. "I'm not wasting my time on you and your bets. They always end up ruining my reputation."

"Oh, what a shame then." Coren sighed woefully. "I guess this challenge is simply to much for the great, almighty Graves."

Graves snapped his gaze up at that. Slowly, he leaned back in his seat and smirked.

"Nothing is to hard for Graves Hallowell." he boldly declared.

"Nothing?" Coren teased.

"Nothing at all."

"So say if, maybe, I dunno, I said you couldn't get one particular girl to confess her love to you. What do you say to that?"

"Ha!" Graves laughed. "I can get any girl I want."

"_Any _girl?"

"Any girl." Graves confirmed.

"Fine then, here's the bet." Coren pointed to Graves. "You need to get one girl, of my choice, to confess her love to you."

"With the kind of girls you date, this should be easy." Graves smirked. "What are the rules?"

"You can't force her to say it. She has to do so willingly."

"Fine."

"You can't pay her off or anything like that. Gotta use that good old fashioned charm of yours, buddy."

"Easy." Graves said, waving his hand flippantly. "Who's the girl?"

"You honestly can't miss her." grinned Coren. "Purple hair, espeon ears, homicidal twin…" he trailed off. "What was her name again? Giselle?"

Graves visible eye shot to the espeon sorrow, then to her domineering and dangerous twin.

"So I essentially have to get Stutter over there to confess her undying love for me." Graves mused thoughtfully. "If I can get rid of her twin, this will be easier than I originally thought. And if I do, you, Coren, aren't allowed to flirt with random sorrows you pick up off the street. For three months. It's bad for the image, you know."

Coren grinned. He knew that Graves was way to prideful and arrogant to refuse the bet.

"And if she doesn't," Coren said, crossing his arms. "_You, _King Dipshit, have to announce to the entire guild that you are secretly very insecure about yourself because your mommy made you take ballet lessons when you were a little kid, and your attitude is a simply an act to cover up the fact that you're still a warped little boy who still likes to dance across the stage in a pink tutu on his tippy toes."

Graves swallowed uncomfortably.

"They weren't ballet lessons." Graves muttered. "Fine, I accept your bet. Say goodbye to your one-night stands."

"Can't wait to see your tutu." Coren grinned, shaking his hand. Graves grabbed Asher by the back of his shirt.

"I need you for a second." Graves said, dragging him out the door. Coren wasn't quite sure what he was planning, but he was satisfied with this outcome.

"What's with that smug smirk?" Clamor grumbled. "You're in a loose-loose situation with two bets. Loose against Graves, you loose against Fina, and thus we loose our money. What with the add on that Graves burdened us with, you can't even flirt money out of random sorrows."

"As if I'd sink so low." Coren scoffed. "I've got _some _class."

Clamor fixed him with a judgmental look.

"What is it with you today?!" Coren exclaimed. Calming down after a moment, Coren smiled. "He said _random _sorrows."

"So?"

"_So," _Coren grinned mischievously. "I can still flirt with Team Evolution, and thus, Fina."

Clamor sighed, head thumping against the table in frustration.

"That's the least of our worries, Coren."

o.0.o.0.o

"You're sure you're heading out again?" Moon asked as Zap gathered his few belongings. He mutely nodded, glancing up at her while Launa sat on a chair, swinging her legs back and forth.

"I don't think that attack on your village was random." he murmured. "I think there's something going on."

"Even I could've said that." Moon responded, shaking her head. "How would the Elder have gotten into debt with a dark guild to begin with? I don't understand that part at all…"

Zap simply shrugged, hefting his bag over his shoulder.

"I'll… keep in contact." he stated simply, walking towards the door. "Stay safe." he abruptly added. The ninetails watched as he shut the door behind him, completely used to his abrupt coming and goings.

"So what's it with you two?" Launa finally asked, hopping up from the couch. Moon blinked.

"I'm not sure I understand what you're asking."

"Well, he's cute." Launa shrugged casually. "His voice is a little scary, but if he's as quiet as he is all the time, I'd be able to get over it."

"He's eighteen." Moon said, finding her voice clipped.

"So?"

"Aren't you, like, twelve?"

"Objection!" Launa said, pointing at her. "Add three to that!"

"You're fifteen." Moon stated.

"Yep!" Launa grinned. "You jealous? I wouldn't be surprised." her playful tone took on a arrogant hint as she continued to tease the ninetails sorrow. "I mean, a milotic, known for their beauty? It's not surprising."

Moon decided to ignore her. She suddenly smacked her on her shoulder, grinning.

"I'm kidding, Moon." she said. "So what're your plans next?"

Moon sighed at that.

"I don't want to stick around here much longer. The villagers are well and order is established again. I don't think I'm needed. But…"

"But?"

"I don't want to go back to Amazee and deal with the border war." she sighed. "I love the guild with all my heart, but I'm tired of the trivial fights. It's like, if we run into a single Warlord Crusader guildmember, it's an instant fight." Launa sat thoughtfully for a moment.

"I have an idea!" she grinned, standing on her toes to place her hands on Moon's shoulders. "Lets follow Zap."

"… What?"

"Lets follow Zap, see what he's up too!" Launa insisted. "He's an information broker, right? He must go on tons of fun adventures! Imagine the fun! We could be like spies!"

"… Launa, if Zap wanted us to follow him, he would have asked. He's very good at what he does, I'm pretty sure that if he wanted us to follow him, he'd have invited us."

"He's just anti-social." Launa said flippantly. "Come oooooooooon, Moon. Haven't you always wondered what that guy does when he's not around?"

Moon didn't say anything to that. Sure, she was curious and all, but if Zap…

"Come oooooooon, Moon! We'll just follow him and see what he's doing, nothing more, nothing less! Aren't you worried? Curious? Anything? You know it's not safe to go on missions alone, and from what I know, Zap's not even in a guild! What's going to happen if he gets hurt?"

Moon contemplated her words for a moment. That was the difference between her and Zap. If she got in trouble or hurt, all she had to do was put up an alert signal on her badge and not only would nearby guildmembers be alerted, but so would the guildmaster of her guild and Central themselves. If Zap was in trouble… what would become of him?

"… Let me pack a bag." Moon finally said. Launa's face lit up as she squealed, beginning to babble about how exciting the expedition would be. As Moon climbed the stairs to her room, beginning to pack a small amount of items, she wondered, briefly, what she had gotten herself into.

o.0.o.0.o

"Why," Kaze growled out as he continued walking along the path. "Are you following me?"

He glared at an utterly cheeky Viridi, a placid-faced Qani, and an annoyed Saffron. He could understand Qani and Saffron, sure. Qani was looking for Clamor at Three Spirit and Saffron was heading back to the guild. They were easy to ignore, what with the former being quiet and serious, much like him, and the other being so short he could scare her into silence simply with his height.

But Viridi was much like the women at his guild: loud, annoying, incomprehensibly stupid and reckless, and who, since being healed, decided to latch into him and follow him like a lost child would her mother.

At first, he simply ignored her, and that worked. But then she started pulling at his hair, or trying to pluck the feathers from his wings, or poke his cheek. He attempted to fly away from her, only to realize she's somehow managed to steal some miscellaneous item on his person and he had to go retrieve it. Realizing his attempt to fly away was useless, he pulled on his trench coat so she wouldn't touch his wings anymore. When she no longer found entertainment in poking and prodding at him, she fell silent, much to his relief.

Then she began her incessant _chattering, _eventually telling him every bit of useless information he had absolutely _no_ need for, like the time she climbed a tree and got stuck, or how she liked to eat the pink crayons, _specifically _the pink one's, when she was four. It was like one thing lead to another, and in one single sentence, she managed to go from one topic to three different topics then back to the original topic, all in a single breath of air.

Qani was no help whatsoever. Like him, he supposed, she was much to mission oriented to care wether or not Viridi's talking bothered her. After all, it wasn't _she _the leafeon was trying to irritate, so what would she care? And Saffron? The little weakling seemed to be _enjoying _his hidden suffering. An yet Viridi kept talking. And talking. And talking. And talking. While Qani annoyed him, it wasn't same way Viridi was annoying him. Qani was just a stark difference to what he was used to, and he, in turn, found her intriguing. But Viridi?

_She was driving him utterly mad._

Finally, at some point, his brain snapped and he just gave up, listening to her talk and talk and talk until she finally stopped talking, giving him an opening for the question.

And she gave him the worst possible answer.

"I'm following you to join your guild! The way Saffron described it made it sound amazing, and I think it's about time I gave up the life of hiding and thievery!"

…

…

…

He was going to murder that damned breloom.

o.0.o.0.o

**Whelp, no new OCs in this chapter. I guess this is kind of a filler, some anticipation for the next part of the story and all. Thanks to you all for the 103 reviews! This is the largest amount of reviews I managed to rake in before chapter ten, and i couldn't be happier.**

**Now, anyways, I'm going to say right here and now that I have thought up some shippings for the OCs. If anyone does NOT want their character in a relationship, please tell me and I will cross their name off the available roster. Thank you!**

**Amy47101 signing off! ^.^**


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